Lecture | "The Avian Imagination: Ornithological Art and Ecology since Audubon"

In this presentation, Dr. Alan Braddock explores the important ecological insights of bird artists from John James Audubon to the present.  The presentation will highlight works of art from the exhibition Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment, which Braddock co-curated with the Princeton University Art Museum in 2018-19, along with other examples.

The McClung Museum is pleased to present Braddock in conjuction with the temporary exhibtion, Between the Hand and Sky. Collaborators include UT's School of Art and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.

About the Speaker

Alan C. Braddock is the Ralph H. Wark Associate Professor of Art History and Environmental Humanities at William & Mary, where he teaches courses on the history of art, ecology, and environmental justice.  He is the author of Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity (2009) and co-editor of three books addressing American art and ecology, including Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment (2018), which won the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for distinction from the College Art Association, among other prizes.  Braddock has published numerous articles and has lectured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery in London, the Free University in Berlin, and many other institutions.  He is currently developing two new books on global art and ecology, including one for the Getty Research Institute, where he was a fellow-in-residence in 2019-20.  He also serves on the collection reinstallation advisory board of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.