On Monday, September 10, 2007—at the onset of fall bird migration—the Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery will open While All the Tribes of Birds Sang, a new art exhibition of historic and contemporary bird imagery that includes paintings, prints, sculpture, decoys, rare books and bird mounts. The exhibition will continue through Friday, February 29, 2008.
While All the Tribes of Birds Sang pays homage to our fascination with birds as an emotional and narrative symbol of flight, power, fancy and social commentary. The exhibition begins with fine examples of natural history prints and books of the past centuries, including a selection of prints from John James Audubon's monumental achievement, The Birds of America.
Audubon's lively depictions of his birds have sparked future generations of artists by their highly charged narratives of courtship and struggle in the wild. The contemporary artists in While All the Tribes of Birds Sang strike a balance in their work between the observant rendering of a naturalist and the fantastic, metaphorical images of fiction. Similar to Audubon's deep felt attachment and companionship with his subject, these artists continue that most unscientific act of making birds anthropomorphic–like humans–or we ourselves bird-like in a slippery reciprocity of often humorous mutation.
Contemporary artists in the exhibition include Chris Berti (Urbana), Mark Crisanti (Chicago), Jonathan Flew (Elgin), Nancy Hild (Chicago), George Klauba (Chicago), Robert Lostutter (Chicago), Peggy Macnamara (Evanston), Peter Olson (DeKalb), Michael Pajon (Chicago), and Eleanor Spiess-Ferris (Chicago). While All the Tribes of Birds Sang also includes historic prints and volumes by John James Audubon, Mark Catesby, John Gould, and Alexander Wilson, decoys from the decorative arts collection and bird mounts from the zoology collection of the Illinois State Museum. -- www.museum.state.il.us
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