CANNON ART GALLERY HOSTS AUDUBON’S ANIMALS OF N.A.

Wednesday, 04 October 2006 20:41

Carlsbad, CA - Seventy original hand-colored lithographs from John James Audubon’s magnum opus, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, published between 1845 and 1848, are the finest images of North American animals ever made.

The works will be shown at the William D. Cannon Art Gallery from October 22 through December 17, 2006 in an exhibition entitled Spectacular Achievements: Audubon's Animals of North America; Selected Works from the Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas.  The Cannon Art Gallery is located in the Carlsbad City Library complex.

Spectacular Achievements: Audubon’s Animals of North America is a unique opportunity to view Audubon's lithographic works and to appreciate his skills as an artist, observer and interpreter of nature.  Like his Birds of America, the Quadrupeds are wonderfully animated, expertly executed, and beautifully printed in large (22”x 28”) format.  The exhibit includes animal masterpieces of art and science that are entirely American: Ocelot, Jaguar, Lynx, Male Cougar, Female Cougar, Grizzly Bear, Beaver, Black Wolf, Red Texan Wolf, Wolverine, Virginia Opossum, Northern Hare, Cross Fox, Collared Peccary, Horned Antelope, and Columbian Black Tailed Deer.

In the late 1830s, nearing the completion of his monumental Birds of America project, Audubon began to collect material for an equally impressive study of North American animals.  Quadrupeds proved more difficult than he had anticipated, as many native animals were nocturnal and their habits were hard to learn.  He was greatly aided by his two sons, John Woodhouse and Victor and by his good friend, Dr. John Bachman, a minister in Charleston, South Carolina. The first specimens he collected were shipped to him at his home in New York preserved in barrels of rum.  He would later make the journey up the Missouri River in the footsteps of George Catlin, Karl Bodmer, and Alfred Jacob Miller to personally document the little-known wildlife of the frontier.  Published between 1845 and 1848 by John T. Bowen of Philadelphia, only 300 complete sets of 150 images were sold by subscription, making the works very rare.

Spectacular Achievements is the second exhibition of Audubon’s original lithographs shown in the Cannon Art Gallery, following an enormously popular exhibition of Birds of America in 2002.  The Carlsbad exhibition is part of a twelve-city national tour over a thirty-month period; the tour was developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, an exhibition tour development company in Kansas City, Missouri.

Programs of the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Office, the William D. Cannon Art Gallery is a focal point for arts and culture in San Diego’s North County, offering a broad range of exhibitions.  For information on the exhibition visit www.carlsbadca.gov/arts