EXHIBIT: Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts

From the website:

Science meets art in this ground-breaking exhibition revealing an unusual and previously unexplored aspect of Charles Darwin’s legacy – the impact of his theories upon artists of the late nineteenth century.

Developed by The Fitzwilliam Museum in association with the Yale Center for British Art, Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts offers an intriguing new perspective on the cultural resonance of Darwin’s theories.

This landmark exhibition explores both Darwin’s interest in the visual arts and the vast range of artistic responses to his revolutionary ideas, through an astonishingly diverse selection of exhibits from around the world.

The exhibit will show at the Yale Center for British Art from February 12 – May 3, 2009 and at the Fitzwilliam Museum (University of Cambridge) June 16 – October4, 2009.

New York Times: “Darwin’s Wake Splashed Artists, Too” (exhibit review) and slideshow.

Samples of art in the exhibit:

Martin Johnson Heade, Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds, 1871

Odilon Redon, “The Misshapen Polyp Floated on the Shores, a Sort of Smiling and Hideous Cyclops,” plate 3 from Les Origines, 1883

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Reginald Southey and Skeletons, 1857