60 Years of SAA Exhibitions

The Best Laid Plans ...

One thing constant in life is change, so along those lines, I've had to change the content line-up I had planned for the next couple of blog posts. Because of the COVID 19 virus, we've had to cancel our upcoming 60th Annual Exhibition for the Society of Animal Artists. So this month I've decided to interview the SAA Executive Director Wes Siegrist (AKA my husband) about the history of SAA Exhibitions.

Emily Kapes, Curator of Art and Wes Siegrist, SAA Executive Director at the 58th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art.

How many exhibitions have been held by the SAA?

Well, I would first have to clarify exhibitions. Since 1979, the SAA had considered our Annual Exhibition as our main event. Prior to 1979, they hosted a members' show each year. Alongside these, there have been various regional shows as well as touring venues derived from the earlier members' shows or later Annual Exhibitions. I'd also have to say we have a few early years with no historical records but all together, the Society has held at least 246 exhibitions. We also have nine additional upcoming exhibitions under contract.

How many different states have exhibitions been held?

From the SAA archives, at least 38 States have hosted SAA exhibitions. Additionally, the SAA exhibited internationally in Canada in 1995 and England in 2017.

SAA 1980 Exhibition/Convention, San Antonio, TX

How many artists have participated in exhibitions over the years?

SAA archives mostly just track the early member shows and later Annual Exhibitions so that's the only number I can be accurate stating. We are also missing records for 1960-1963. We know at least 863 different artists have participated in the SAA's main exhibitions. It would be well over a thousand total including all shows. Today, SAA exhibitions are members only. In the past, there were some guest artists and works featured from deceased artists of historical note.

How are shows now different than shows from the early days?

I could talk for a long time here! Guess I'll just limit it to saying in the old days, we had no jury (or a more lenient jury), we hung prints along with originals, and we allowed more than one work from each artist. All of these have changed now. We started with awards in 1979 and have gradually tightened our juries, judging, and overall policies. It should be noted that our membership grew significantly some years until our membership jury also became more strict. We've averaged about 500 members for the last decade which means getting into an exhibition with limited space is always a challenge!

SAA 1980 Exhibition/Convention, San Antonio, TX

Since you've recently spent time in the SAA archives, was there anything that you found especially interesting?

1. At least 17 different members have exhibited in 30 or more of our Annual Exhibitions! The top five in ascending order are Sue Westin (35), Kent Ullberg (36), George L. Schelling (37), Marilyn Newmark (42) and Guy Coheleach (48)!

2.  The SAA didn't start jurying our exhibitions until 1976. We had a smaller membership back then and members were encouraged to just submit their best work. The SAA Board required any show officially sponsored by the SAA to be juried starting in 1983.

3. The SAA added two new categories of membership starting in 2010. We recognized artists that have been juried into 15 or more annual exhibitions as "Distinguished Signature Members" and those who have received 5 or more Awards of Excellence as our "Master Signature Members".

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You can easily Become A Patron Member of The SAA

Until next time ~ Rachelle Siegrist for the SAA

Andrew Denman: The Modern World

Society of Animal Artists Signature member Andrew Denman's exhibition opens in September at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, California.

ANDREW DENMAN: THE MODERN WILD

David J. Wagner, Ph. D., Curator/Tour Director

Lindsay Wildlife Museum

September 19 - 27, 2015

Walnut Creek (San Francisco), CA

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

October 31, 2015 - January 3, 2016

Tucson, AZ

Society of Animal Artists Signature member Andrew Denman announces  ANDREW DENMAN: THE MODERN WILD, a museum exhibition consisting of a diverse range of paintings, drawings, and studies showcasing Denman’s unique style, a style that has brought him to the leading edge of an evolving genre.  The exhibit will premiere in September, 2015 at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek (San Francisco), CA, and tour to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum into 2016.  Additional venues are anticipated.

In the overly crowded and often overly conservative wildlife art genre, Denman’s cutting edge blend of hyper-realism with stylization and abstraction immediately distinguish him from his peers.  The sense of fearless experimentation he brings to the easel expresses itself in a diversity of stylistic approaches and subjects, from birds to big cats, landscape, trompe le’oeil still life, the human figure, and even surrealism. “Between the drudgery of illustration and the vacuity of decoration lies the evocative; that is the province of the artist, and that is the realm to which my work belongs,” says Andrew Denman of his edgy portrayals of the natural world.

Denman possesses a deep and abiding love of animals and the wild places they inhabit, and his dedication to technical accuracy rivals that of any other living wildlife artist, but his true passion is a decidedly contemporary interpretation of nature, not a classical representation of it. While the artist often includes naturalistic settings in his work, he is just as likely to depict an animal subject in an entirely non objective space.  These contrasts vary from the subtle to the extreme, but always the blend is visually seamless and intellectually challenging.  The artist often incorporates letters, numbers, and snatches of his own poetry to create intriguing and even sometimes humorous juxtapositions.  Informed by an understanding of art history, poetry, nature, and science, Andrew’s work embodies not only a mature visual expression beyond his years, but an intellectual depth and conceptual significance seldom found in “animal art.”

Denman possesses a deep and abiding love of animals and the wild places they inhabit, and his dedication to technical accuracy rivals that of any other living wildlife artist, but his true passion is a decidedly contemporary interpretation of nature, not a classical representation of it. While the artist often includes naturalistic settings in his work, he is just as likely to depict an animal subject in an entirely non objective space.  These contrasts vary from the subtle to the extreme, but always the blend is visually seamless and intellectually challenging.  The artist often incorporates letters, numbers, and snatches of his own poetry to create intriguing and even sometimes humorous juxtapositions.  Informed by an understanding of art history, poetry, nature, and science, Andrew’s work embodies not only a mature visual expression beyond his years, but an intellectual depth and conceptual significance seldom found in “animal art.”

“I consider myself deeply fortunate,” says the artist, to have possessed such clarity as to my life’s purpose since childhood.”  At just thirty two years of age, it is that clarity of purpose, coupled with an adventurous spirit and unflagging dedication, that has already cemented Andrew Denman’s reputation amongst his peers and collectors, and which will no doubt propel him to a station of high regard amongst the next generation of great artists.

For further information, visit: http://davidjwagnerllc.com/exhibitions.html or

http://andrewdenman.com/Modern_Wild.html

Koons, da Vinci, & Warhol are just a few!

A notable exhibit that is currently on view at Grand Palais Galeries Nationales (Grand Palace National Gallery) in Paris, France

ANIMAL BEAUTY

March 21 - July 16, 2012

Grand Palais Galeries Nationales

Paris, France

 

The exhibition, organized by the Rmn-Grand Palais, explores the relationships between artists and animals, from Brueghel to Jeff Koons, and includes Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Degas, Giacometti, Matisse and Andy Warhol. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and naturalist sketches… one hundred and sixty masterpieces of western art, from the Renaissance to today, are brought together here.

Please click here to visit the museums website.

(rc via dw)