Regional Touring Exhibition Service

The Butterfly Series from the Collection of  Jordan W. Finkelstein, MD, MSc

Photographs by Gerald Lang and Jennifer Anne Tucker

Throughout time and within culture, butterflies and moths have symbolized transitions in their broadest scope –from death to life, dark to light, winter to spring, from one state of being to the next. When people are able to observe living science and transitions in the natural world, they are inspired to create symbols and myths. Culture spawned from the science of butterflies and moths is one that speaks of great beauty, loss, and perseverance.

In creating the Butterflies Series, artists Gerald Lang and Jennifer Ann Tucker scanned butterflies and moths from the personal collection of Jordan W. Finkelstein, MD, MSc. The artists used a process, known as focus stacking to generate an ultra-high-resolution, multi-dimensional viewing experience that is more commonly associated with scientific research. Within these high-resolution scans, the scales, fur, structures, and patterns of life and disintegration become visible as science and art entwine.

Gerald Lang is an emeritus professor of art and integrated arts at Penn State University. Jennifer Anne Tucker received her master’s degree in fine arts photography from Penn State University. As a couple, together they own The Studio at Hill Crystal Farm in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania.

IMAGE: Gerald Lang and Jennifer Anne Tucker, Batesia hypochlora (Painted beauty butterfly), 2016, digital scan, 9 x 11-7/8 inches, courtesy of the artists, butterfly from the collection of Jordan W. Finkelstein MD, MSc 

Curriculum and Activites Guide

Creatures Great and Small: Animals from the UW Art Museum Collection

Humans have long been fascinated with the natural world, especially with our fellow creatures. Evolutionary and biological connections, coupled with our close proximity on a shared planet, result in a complicated relationship with animals. Some animals are captured, studied, and domesticated by humans, while others remain mysterious and wild, captured only through art. Prehistoric cave paintings – the earliest artistic representations on the historical record – depict animals. Across cultures, they are featured in folktales, fables, legends, and myths. Personified as kind, wise, wicked, or clever, animals are often used to teach valuable lessons about humanity while instilling beliefs about the world.

This exhibition, featuring selections from the permanent collection, invites the viewer to reflect on the creatures that we have come to bond with as family, rely on for subsistence, and those that have come to represent untamed wilderness.

IMAGE: Wolfgang Pogzeba (German/American, 1936-1982), Prairie Monarch, 1965, etching, 9-1/4 x 11-3/4 inches, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Millman, 1974.16.5