Boldly going, and drawing

12/23/05

By Josef Woodard
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

"Daring Pursuits," at the Museum of Natural History's Maximus Gallery, touches on the artistic reports from new worlds "discovered" by European explorers early in the 19th century.

Outside the current exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, "Daring Pursuits: 19th Century Natural History Explorations," words of wisdom from none other than Charles Darwin are displayed, by way of a pertinent introduction: "Do not go where the path may lead . . . go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Darwin, perhaps the most famous of the 19th century wayfaring explorers, sought to better understand man, nature, origins and the integral link between them. His grand theory of evolution, bolstered by far-flung research missions to the Galapagos Islands and elsewhere, put him in a category of his own, but his obsession with seeking out new paths and forging new trails was part of a general drive to know the world.

Early, trail-blazing art documenting newly discovered flora and fauna makes up the artistic substance of this exhibition in the museum's Maximus Gallery, in which the focus on vintage botanical and zoological prints often hovers around similar themes. Art aside, though, the vaulting ambition -- and also hubris -- of European explorers venturing out into new worlds is the show's underlying basis.

Artists of no small skill were valued team members on 19th-century ocean-going expeditions, in the age before photography. Even so, they weren't valued to the point where their crisp, veracious recreations earned them status beyond anonymity. The art in this show, for instance, is taken from insightful naturalist volumes, but the artists aren't credited. In part, these artists' work was considered as much a function of scientific documentation as art, per se.

Sir Edward Belcher led the three-year "Voyage of the H.M.S. Samarang," from 1843-46, stopping on various islands in the western Pacific and taking notes on cultures, languages and other features of these exotic lands.

Artwork from the adventure included color lithographs of the lemurine night monkey, a simian depicted with kindly facial expression and distinctive markings. The framed page of drawings also includes detailed accountings of its skull, lest we might get too attached to the innate cuteness factor.

Earlier than that expedition, the French frigate Venus set forth with 468 men around Cape Horn and up along South America and the Mexico-period California, ostensibly on a mission to report on whaling and keep the French presence alive in the new world. Along the way, between 1836-39, indigenous zoology was accounted for, in pristine artworks later making their way into the 1846 volume "Atlas de Zoologie" (from which many of this show's pieces were taken).

A series of almost surreal-looking fish specimens includes the Galapagos leopard flounder, with two eyes on one side of its face. The scripted skunk, ocelot and the Mexican flying squirrel were among the odd newcomers to Europe's awareness of the known animal kingdom.

The care and attention to detail found in these prints is impressive by any standard of art and illustration, in the animal sector as well as in a dazzling series of shell studies, of specimens far from the Mediterranean.

Getting the visual facts straight was a key part of the illustrator's task, on an unusual lofty par. Global knowledge was at stake, at a time when human understanding of the world and its inhabitants was rapidly expanding.

DARING PURSUITS: 19th Century Natural History Explorations

When: Through Jan. 3

Where: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol Road

Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily

Information: 682-4711

JOSEF WOODARD PHOTO
"Daring Pusuits" exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.