ARTISTS
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists鈥� Books and the Natural World
This exhibition examines the intersections of artistic and scientific interest in the natural world from the sixteenth century to the present. Depictions of Britain鈥檚 countryside and its native plant and animal life will be explored through more than three hundred objects drawn primarily from the Center鈥檚 collections, ranging from centuries-old manuscripts to contemporary artists鈥� books.
鈥淥f Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower鈥� highlights the scientific pursuits in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that resulted in the collecting and cataloging of the natural world. Also investigated will be the aesthetically oriented activities of self-taught naturalists during the Victorian era, particularly those of women who collected and drew specimens of butterflies, ferns, grasses, feathers, seaweed, and shells, and assembled them into albums and commonplace books.
On view will be examples of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists鈥� books, including those of Eileen Hogan, Mandy Bonnell, Tracey Bush, John Dilnot, Sarah Morpeth, and Helen Douglas, that broaden the vision of the natural world to incorporate its interaction with consumer culture and with modern technologies. Works by these contemporary artists reveal a shared inspiration to record, interpret, and celebrate nature as in the work of their predecessors.
The exhibition features traditional bound books, drawings, and prints, as well as a range of more experimental media incorporating cut paper, wood, stone, natural specimens, sound, video, and interactive multimedia. A number of key historic works will be on loan from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Examples of early microscopes used by natural historians will also be displayed, on loan from the Lentz Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
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This exhibition examines the intersections of artistic and scientific interest in the natural world from the sixteenth century to the present. Depictions of Britain鈥檚 countryside and its native plant and animal life will be explored through more than three hundred objects drawn primarily from the Center鈥檚 collections, ranging from centuries-old manuscripts to contemporary artists鈥� books.
鈥淥f Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower鈥� highlights the scientific pursuits in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that resulted in the collecting and cataloging of the natural world. Also investigated will be the aesthetically oriented activities of self-taught naturalists during the Victorian era, particularly those of women who collected and drew specimens of butterflies, ferns, grasses, feathers, seaweed, and shells, and assembled them into albums and commonplace books.
On view will be examples of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists鈥� books, including those of Eileen Hogan, Mandy Bonnell, Tracey Bush, John Dilnot, Sarah Morpeth, and Helen Douglas, that broaden the vision of the natural world to incorporate its interaction with consumer culture and with modern technologies. Works by these contemporary artists reveal a shared inspiration to record, interpret, and celebrate nature as in the work of their predecessors.
The exhibition features traditional bound books, drawings, and prints, as well as a range of more experimental media incorporating cut paper, wood, stone, natural specimens, sound, video, and interactive multimedia. A number of key historic works will be on loan from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Examples of early microscopes used by natural historians will also be displayed, on loan from the Lentz Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
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