Publisher's Synopsis
Birds have eternally fascinated human beings: so long as art has been made, the imagery of birds has been popular. This remarkable catalogue investigates the prevalence of bird and bird culture subjects in contemporary art since the early 1990s, while also revealing how far artists have evolved in their use of bird imagery since the days of John James Audubon, the first major bird artist. For some artists, birds are the touchstone of physical Nature while others regard them more mystically as symbols of transience and mortality. Certain artists identify so personally with birds that the representation of them becomes a vehicle for exploring issues of autobiography; still others take nothing but delight from birds and use them as a point of departure for toying with the viewerÆs perceptions. Birdspacefeatures works by over fifty artists, including Kiki Smith, Jacqueline Bishop, Ann Craven, Wim Delvoye, Walton Ford, Roni Horn, Hunt Slonem, and many more.
