Exhibitions Highlighting Birds In Art On View Across America

May of 2021 has been a promising month for birds.

The Biden Administration announced it would be reversing a shocking Trump Administration decision to gut the bedrock environmental policy protection afforded birds, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which dates back to 1918, prohibits the take (including killing, capturing, selling, trading and transport) of protected migratory bird species without prior authorization by the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Trump’s pro-development, anti-wildlife government removed incidental take protections from the Act meaning developers and industry were free to kill birds, as long as they didn’t do so on purpose.

Had the Trump Administration’s interpretation of the law been in place during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the company would have faced no consequences under the MBTA for the more than one million birds killed as a result. BP ended up paying $100 million in fines specifically as a result of protections in the MBTA, protections eliminated by the Trump Administration.

Birds, of course, cannot survive without their habitat and the MBTA helps protect habitat. It can’t protect enough habitat alone as evidenced by findings in 2019 that three billion birds have been lost across America from their 1970 population levels. Another effort from the Biden Administration, this one a bold vision to help cease the biodiversity collapse which has cut across nearly all North American wild animal species, is referred to as “30 x 30.”

The Administration’s “America the Beautiful” initiative commits the country by executive order to preserving 30% of the nation’s land and water to conservation by 2030. Details about how exactly that figure will be achieved are sparse. Considering only 12% of the United States is protected for conservation and the outstanding 18% represents an area roughly double the size of Texas, doing so will be a massive undertaking requiring serious commitment from federal, state and local governments as well as the private sector, but similar to John F. Kennedy’s “moon shot,” giving voice to this potentially extraordinary achievement marks a critical first step.

Birds through Art History

Birds have always been a favorite subject of artists dating back to cave drawings. Exhibitions across the country highlight artistic expression realized through birds.

At the Toledo Museum of Art, “Rare and Wondrous: Birds in Art and Culture 1620–1820,” on view through July 25, displays images of exotic birds in European art primarily from the 17^th and 18^th centuries showing how they became objects of scientific inquiry, popular interest, status, and even of household decoration and personal adornment. The exhibition showcases the Museum’s recent acquisition of the six-volume “Ornithologie” written by Mathurin-Jacques Brisson and illustrated by François-Nicolas Martinet, published 1760.

“Brisson described 1,336 species from around the world and was the first to publish 320 of them,” Paula Reich, TMA’s Head of Interpretive Projects and Managing Editor, explained to Forbes.com. “The six volumes include 261 engraved plates of 500 birds by François-Nicolas Martinet, who became an in-demand bird illustrator. The books were not issued with colored plates, so the addition of hand-coloring makes Toledo’s volumes unique, particularly because many of the plates feature what appear to be fanciful color schemes that don’t match the actual appearance of the birds.”

Northwest Ohio actually represents one of the top spots in the country for birdwatching. “The Warbler Capitol of the World” annually hosts the Biggest Week in American Birding in May as the small, colorful birds migrate through the area.

Across the country, the Tucson Museum of Art also takes the long view on artistic representation of birds with its exhibition, “For the Birds: Avian Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection,” through August 1. The show mines the Museum’s permanent collection for images featuring birds completed over the past two centuries.

Birds in Contemporary Art

Louisiana is another birding hotspot, it’s swamps and marshes a haven for egrets, herons and pelicans among the hundreds of species found there. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art In New Orleans presents “The Guardian of the Wetlands: Works by John Taylor,” through May 30. The exhibition, a collaborative effort with the National Wildlife Federation, features works by John Taylor, storyteller, environmentalist, self-taught artist and life-long resident of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.

This exhibition features a variety of works by Taylor, including eight walking sticks carved from wood found along the banks of the Mississippi River and eight photographs of the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle. The exhibition also features historical information about Louisiana wetland loss and provides ways people can become involved with restoration efforts.

Over his lifetime, Taylor has witnessed the 400-acre Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle transform from a vibrant freshwater cypress-tupelo swamp to a ghost swamp of brackish water. Salt water from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet shipping channel, built in the 1960s, inundated the area and caused major degradation. What used to be an old-growth swamp filled with cypress trees, water lilies and freshwater wildlife, such as fish, alligators, otters, birds and crawfish, is mostly open water today.

“Through his carvings, (Taylor) quietly draws attention to the narrative of ecological crisis with his choice of natural materials found in the wetlands,” Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Collection at the Ogden told Forbes.com. “Through his photography, he clearly identifies both the beauty of the environment with its diverse flora and fauna, and the catastrophic effect that global warming and the engineered landscape have upon those natural systems. I am fascinated by his bifurcated practice of nature photography and vernacular carving, which both support his storytelling and educational endeavors.”

Another historic wetland and premiere bird habitat, The Great Marsh, extends from Cape Ann, Massachusetts north to southern New Hampshire. Drawing inspiration from the marsh, Essex sculptor Brad Story and Ipswich photographer Dorothy Kerper Monnelly will showcase works in a special exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum Green from June 18 to July 30.