With more than thirty artists and works in diverse media, Aviary Aesthetic explores the fascination birds have long held for artists and designers across different cultures and in different eras, ranging from late nineteenth-century France to the late twentieth-century United States. Selected from the permanent collection, the works on view reflect a variety of stylistic influences, from realism to surrealism, folk art to scientific illustration.

The artists and makers in the exhibition come from diverse cultural backgrounds. They include Native artists in North America, who incorporate birds as symbols of tribal identity and manifestations of the spirit world, as well as contemporary artists, whose depictions convey mood or draw attention to environmental issues. The exhibition also includes Jewish ritual objects ornamented with cast, hand-drawn and embroidered birds. 

Featured artists include Will Barnet (b. Beverly, Massachusetts, 1911–d. New York, New York, 2012), whose work reflects his admiration for the intimacy achieved by the seventeenth-century painter Vermeer and whose screenprint, Introspection (1972), includes a pair of doves, a classic symbol of love. Tapovan (2012), a painting by Hunt Slonem (b. Kittery, Maine, b. 1951), depicts exotic birds as if seen from inside an aviary with plants that help to simulate a natural environment. Both Slonem and Anton van Dalen (b. Amstelveen, Netherlands, 1938), represented with the sculpture Fantail Pigeon (1983), kept birds at home. Landscape and portrait painter Jon R. Friedman (b. Washington D.C., 1947), best known for his likenesses of such public figures as Bill and Melinda Gates and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is represented with two of his rich depictions of avian wildlife, Peahen (1985–86) and Zoo Duck (1986).

The exhibition also includes a selection of vessels by Native American artists from a diversity of Pueblo communities in the southwest. Among them are Rachel Concho (b. Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, 1936), whose pottery features a roadrunner; Loretta Huma (First Mesa, Arizona, dates unknown), with a jar adorned with a hummingbird; and Nellie Bica (b. Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, 1905–d. 1998), represented by a ceramic owl figurine. Owls also appear in works by Gregory Izrailevich (b. Rostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR, 1924–d. St. Petersburg, Russia, 1999), Mel Hunter (b. Oak Park, Illinois, 1927–d. Ferrisburgh, Vermont, 2004) and Vladimir Gedikyan (b. Moscow, Russian SFSR, 1928). A pair of hummingbirds are a subject for Dorothy Doughty (b. San Remo, Italy, 1892–d. Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, 1962), a ceramicist who designed popular bird figurines manufactured in limited editions under her supervision by the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company in England.

Several artists bring attention to environmental issues, including Dan Bruggeman (b. Omaha, Nebraska, 1957), in a mixed media work on paper, Science of Birds: The Magpie (1999), and Paul J. Greenfield (American, dates unknown), whose ornithological drawings appear in field guides to the birds of Ecuador, where he has lived since 1972. Surrealism, fantasy and folk traditions inform the real and imagined birds in works by several artists. These include: Garden of Eden, from Drawings for the Bible (1960), by Marc Chagall (b. Liozno, Russian Empire, 1887–d. Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, 1985); a lithograph from the series Gates of the Immigrants (1970) by Naftali Bezem (b. Essen, Germany, 1924–d. Tel Aviv, Israel, 2018); A Sea Change (1963) by Lars Bo (b. Kolding, Denmark, 1924–d. Paris, France, 1999); and Feigele Sing Mir A Liedele (Little Bird, Sing Me a Song), from the portfolio Yiddish Folksongs (1962), by artist Anatoli Kaplan (b. Rogachev, Russian Empire, 1902–d. Leningrad, Russian SFSR, 1980).

Among the earliest works in the exhibition is an etching by Felix Bracquemond (b. Paris, France, 1833–d. Sèvres, France, 1914), a contemporary of the Impressionists, titled Ébats de Canards (Ducks Frolicking) (ca. 1881). The Jewish ceremonial objects in the exhibition also date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including a richly embroidered velvet matzah cover (ca. 1910) originating from a girls’ orphanage in Jerusalem; a beautifully illustrated marriage contract (1891) from Hamadan, in western Iran, featuring a peacock, a symbol of Persian royalty; a silver mezuzah probably from Eastern Europe (19th century); and a picture frame with a stately peacock design from the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem (ca. 1920).

Other artists in the exhibition include Irina Belopolskaya (Russian, dates unknown); Yosl Bergner (b. Vienna, Austria, 1920–d. Tel Aviv, Israel, 2017); Miguel Ortiz Berrocal (b. Villanueva de Algaidas, Spain, 1933–d. Antequera, Spain, 2006); Valentina DuBasky (b. Washington, D.C., 1951); Fugi Nakamizo (b. Fukuiken, Empire of Japan, 1889–d. New York City, 1950); David Weidman (b. East Los Angeles, California, 1921–d. Los Angeles, California, 2014); and Clemence Wescoupe (b. Long Plain First Nation, Manitoba, Canada, 1951–d. Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, 2018).

All of the works on view reflect the many ways in which the beauty of birds enhances human design, whether in paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings or ritual objects, and by extension people’s lives. Through these avian creatures, humanity seeks to understand and communicate its place within the natural world.

In addition to visiting in person, the exhibition may be viewed online at www.derfneronline.org/aviary-aesthetic