Endangered Species: theme 02: mammoths and dinosaurs
September 8, 2018 - January 6, 2019
Lightcatcher Building
second theme
Mammoths and dinosaurs:
interpreting natural extinction
Mammoth and dinosaur fossils were among the missing links to understanding life during the planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. The artists who interpreted these discoveries presented convincing visions of animals roaming primeval habitats shaped by geological changes over vast epochs. These revelations, which contributed to what is now called “deep time” were first published in best-selling, illustrated books and magazines. Sharing these startling views of Earth’s past became a popular form of family entertainment.
The artworks featured in this section of the exhibition draw attention to the concept of extinction, both natural and man-made, as represented by selections of historic illustrated books, as well as paintings.
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- John Martin, English, 1789–1854; Country of the Iguanodon, from Gideon Mantell’s Wonders of Geology, vol. 1, 1838; Steel mezzotint engraving, 7 x 4.75 x 1.25 in. Courtesy of Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Kansas City, Missouri.
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- Édouard Riou, French, 1833–1900; Apparition de l’Homme (Appearance of Man) from Louis Figuier’s Terre avant le Déluge (The World before the Deluge), 1866; Engraving, 9.5 x 6.75 x 1.375 in. Courtesy of Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Kansas City, Missouri.
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- David W. Miller, American, b. 1957; Quetzalcoatlus, 2002; Oil and acrylic on illustration board, 16 x 12 in. Courtesy of the New York State Museum, Albany.
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- Charles R. Knight, American, 1874–1953; Woolly Mammoth and Hunter, 1909; Oil on canvas, 27.5 x 39.5 in. Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.
