If you can’t make it to The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago this weekend, you can still enjoy a bit of its exhibition this weekend at Saper Galleries, 433 Albert Ave.
Fifty reproductions from John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” will be on display Sunday at the gallery in downtown East Lansing.
“What’s wonderful is that the 50 best are here and you don’t have to go to the Chicago Field Museum or New York to see them,” gallery owner and 1973 MSU graduate Roy Saper said. “It’s a real coup for the community that they’re here and you can see them for free.”
The prints are reproductions of some of the 435 original works in New York City. They were made from the folio that resides in The Field Museum in Chicago using digital imaging technology and color correction.
Creating one print takes about a day, and the fifty chosen took about two years to recreate.
Joel Oppenheimer, president of Oppenheimer Editions publishing company, chose the prints for their individual merits.
“What I wanted to do was include mostly the most famous blockbuster sort of images,” he said.
Oppenheimer said he has been interested in Audubon’s work for many years.
“I bought a collection about 20 years ago of Audubon’s work, and I fell in love with it,” he said. “He brought something to the depiction of birds no one else was able to do.”
Ben Williams, head librarian of the Field Museum, said Audubon made huge breakthroughs in American ornithology, the study of birds.
“He was something of a genius at observing birds in the wild,” he said. “He was the first person to attempt to capture and publish every bird of an entire country and depict them life-size.”
Oppenheimer said the works are very true-to-life.
“One of the things that appeals to me is the dynamic property,” he said. “He puts the birds in very active poses.
“You really do get the sense that he’s communicating what he saw in the wild.”
The exhibit opens at Saper Galleries from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday through November. Saper will give a talk at 3 p.m. Sunday.
“Everybody in the community is welcome because it’s such a wonderful show,” Saper said.
One thing Saper said he finds particularly interesting about Audubon’s work is the stories that accompany each work. He will be incorporating parts of those stories in the tags next to the prints in the gallery.
Although prints of the work will be available to order, the exhibit is free and open to the public.
East Lansing is the first stop for Audubon’s prints, which will continue to tour the U.S. from Washington, D.C. to Seattle, Wash. to Baton Rouge, La.
