"Travels in the Interior of North America: The Maximilian-Bodmer Expedition" comes to the gallery through ExhibitsUSA, while the related A.G. Edwards Corporate Art Collection of Bodmer Prints is sponsored by CPI Qualified Plan Consultants Inc., a subsidiary of A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. Complementing these two noted exhibits will be a collection of carvings by local wood carver Robert E. Button.
"Travels in the Interior of North America" showcases 59 prints produced from exquisitely detailed drawings by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. In 1832, Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian zu Wied, a respected German naturalist and scholar, on a two-year journey to explore and document the "natural face of North America," particularly the western wilderness.
While Prince Maximilian was not the first to venture into the vast new frontier of the Louisiana Purchase, his journey is regarded as one of the most important of the early expeditions, as no previous exploration of North America combined the abilities of an experienced scientist with those of a talented artist.
The engravings in the exhibition were produced from the original 19th-century printing plates, which are owned by the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb. Pulled on a hand-operated flat-bed press and then hand colored, the 20th-century edition has been made in the same fashion and to the same standards as the 19th-century sets.
Prince Maximilian's observations on the expedition, along with Bodmer's illustrations, are still considered an important record for ecologists today. His landscapes recorded the western frontier so accurately that the landmarks – where they have not been altered by time or settlement – are identifiable today. His images of American Indians are among the earliest and most important visual records of the Plains Indians.
Maximilian and Bodmer saw a transforming western frontier, and their observations are the foundation of much of America's collective memory and understanding of that era. This exhibit gives audiences the opportunity to see these extraordinary prints and gain an appreciation for both their artistic beauty and their value as historical and scientific documents.
A retired farmer, Button has been a wood carver since the late 1970s, and for many of those years, his carvings have reflected his interests in archaeology and the American Indian.
Among the 70 Old West and American Indian pieces Button has brought to this exhibit, 17 are carvings based in minute detail on figures from the Bodmer prints.
"For some number of years, I've been doing carvings from some of Bodmer's prints," he said.
Over the years, Button has acquired several of Bodmer's books. He was fortunate to find one in particular in an antique shop in Santa Fe, N.M.
"That's where I got the idea of how to dress the Indians I was carving," he said. "Bodmer went into such detail in his paintings, mostly watercolors. He would paint the whole costume."
"So many of them have got such a story behind them and it's such a neat package of history for that period (1832-34), because by 1837 most of these people had perished with smallpox and diphtheria, the diseases brought by the white man," Button said.
His exhibit also includes many other American Indian pieces, some caricatures depicting life on the western frontier, North American Indian carvings inspired by an Alaskan trip, and some relief carvings, including one of Fort Zarah, based on the original blueprints obtained from the National Archives.
The A.G. Edwards Collection of Bodmer prints includes 19 hand-colored engravings. The focus of the works in this collection is St. Louis and the role of the city as the Gateway to the West. Situated in the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, St. Louis was a logical spot for early 19th-century traders to begin their journeys west.
The Bodmer prints in the collection became an important source of ethnographic and geographic information on the land and people of the Louisiana Purchase Territory. This exhibit represents only a small part of the A.G. Edwards Corporate Art Collection, which spans 200 years and features more than 4,000 works by noted American and European artists.
"Travels in the Interior of North America: The Maximilian-Bodmer Expedition" is being curated by Marsha Gallagher, Chief Curator of the Joslyn Art Museum, and organized and toured by ExhibitsUSA.
ExhibitsUSA is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities.
A national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, ExhibitsUSA is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant Program. Additional funders include the H&R Block Foundation, Cooper Foundation, Richard Florsheim Art Fund, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Samuel H. Kress Foundation. ExhibitsUSA also has had the past support of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a private, nonprofit arts organization. Mid-America Arts Alliance is assisted by its six partner state arts agencies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and private contributions.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Group tours and evening showings are available by appointment. For more information, call the gallery, 620-792-9342. All Shafer Gallery exhibits are presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Bison Dance of the Mandan Indians

Karl Bodmer

John Wayne
by Andy Warhol