Sally Chandler / Bibliography:  click here to return to articles

Behrens, Todd, publication, catalogue "Wild Life, the Other Tradition, Polk Museum of Art, Jan. 2002

The Other Tradition to which we refer, consists of those artists who have added to the tradition of wildlife art rather than merely copy it. For instance, the horse has achieved a state of new expression in the hands of great 20th-century artists such as Franz Marc or Marino Marini. Birds, standing or in flight, have never been more graceful or powerful than in the creations of Constantin Brancusi and Morris Graves. Can one imagine exotic wildlife without recalling the imagery of Henri Rousseau? Animals and our relationships with them are too complex to be limited to the static imaginations that produce large-edition posters and calendars.

The artists in this exhibition are but a sampling of the rich and colourful minds that have expanded our vision of animals, all the while making important contributions within the contemporary art world, which is, after all, the primary arena for developing creative vision. Artists such as Alfredo Arreguin, Sal Guastella, Graciela Iturbide, and Kay Miller combine rich multi-cultural experiences and affinities into vibrantly patterned and textured presentations of animals. Other artists, such as Sally Chandler and Susan Gott, have searched for inspiration from within other cultures: Chandler from North African motifs and script and Gott from Native American glyphs. Robert McCauley has searched for inspiration from within Western traditions of art history, but works with a thoroughly contemporary mindset, moving from 19th-century artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer through the development of modernist theories.