Pulitzer Prize-winning Biographer Presents Audubon in the American Wilderness January 22

Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, Richard Rhodes is author of the acclaimed biography John James Audubon (Random House, 2004).

Richard Rhodes: “Audubon in the American Wilderness”
Thursday, January 22, 2009
6:15 pm
Lubar Auditorium
Free with general admission
A reception and booksigning will follow in the Museum’s Baumgartner Galleria.
Sponsored by the American Arts Society, Milwaukee Art Museum Garden Club, and Print Forum.

John James Audubon (1785-1851) wandered the American backcountry drawing birds at a time when the primordial wilderness was already beginning to give way to commercial exploitation and pioneer settlement. His predecessors Mark Catesby and Alexander Wilson figured prominently among his models, but his ambition was larger than theirs: he intended not only to catalog American’s birds but also to merge scientific illustration with fine art. To do so, he challenged the illustrative traditions of his day.