Through May 15, 2022 | National Museum of Wildlife Art | Jackson, WY

Bear Necessities

A new exhibition devoted to bears explores the lovable and dangerous sides of one of wildlife’s most popular subjects.ssities

One of the many reasons visitors flock to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is the magnificent bears that roam around the wilderness. Those who fly by plane into Jackson are reminded that these are wild and dangerous animals when, right in the airport terminal, they pass a rental kiosk for bear spray. Robert McCauley, The Only West Left is the One in Your Head, 2014, oil on canvas on panel, 24 x 36”. JKM Collection, National Museum of Wildlife Art, W2014.037.004. © Robert McCauley.

It’s that unique dynamic—beauty mixed with danger, majesty and menace, lovable fuzzball and killing machine—that has drawn people from all over the world to North America for more than a century. And the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole is celebrating bears and the captivating hold they have over artists with the current exhibition While They’re Sleeping: A Story of Bears.Tom Uttech, Tanaltavik Lake, 1988, oil on canvas, 60 x 66”. Gift of the 2016 Collectors Circle with additional funding generously provided by the Winfield Family, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 2016.041. © Tom Uttech.

While the exhibition will explore all bears, While They’re Sleeping came to be thanks to one bear in particular. “One of our board members had been traveling and came back and was fascinated by Grizzly 399, a bear that has been made famous here in Jackson,” says Tammi Hanawalt, the museum’s curator of art. “She’s the only bear that has her own Facebook page; that’s how popular she is. When she started having cubs she would take them close to human activity to protect them from the more aggressive male bears. She’s also consistently had cubs every two years, and last summer she had four. So she’s become the Madonna of bears here in town.”Greg McHuron (1945-2012), Alpine Flush, 2009, watercolor on paper, 8⅝ x 13⅝”. 2009 Western Visions Trustees Purchase Award, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 2009.020. © Greg McHuron.

Ken Carlson, Polar Bear, oil on board, 28 x 44”. JKM Collection, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 1994.028. © Ken Carlson.

After the suggestion from the board member, Hanawalt dug through the museum’s permanent collection and found a fun variety of artworks that celebrate bears, including pieces from some of Western art’s most popular wildlife artists—artists such as Tucker Carlson, Tom Uttech, Robert McCauley, Bob Kuhn and Carl Rungius. Bears of all varieties will be shown, including paintings and bronzes of black bears, grizzlies and polar bears. And because Grizzly 399 held such a strong inspiration over the exhibition, she will be given a special exhibit within the exhibit that includes seven works of art devoted just to her. John Woodhouse Audubon (1812-1862), Grizzly Bear, 1848, hand-colored lithograph, 19 x 25”. JKM Collection, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 1989.071.Hanawalt says that people are drawn to bears not just because they are both majestic and dangerous, but also because of human-like characteristics bears have been known to exhibit. “We connect with bears because we can sort of identify with them. When they stand up on their hind legs there is something quite human about them. And they really are cute, and their look is more disarming than frightening,” she says. “When I was doing research I found that Native American cultures use bears as symbols of protectors, sort of a mother image. They are part of our family and the cycle of life.” —

While They’re Sleeping: A Story of Bears
Through May 15, 2022
National Museum of Wildlife Art
2820 Rungius Road, Jackson, WY 83002
(307) 733-5771, www.wildlifeart.org