Bitty Birds

Influenced by the exotic, lush landscapes of his childhood years in Hawaii, Hunt Slonem’s richly colored, impressionistic bird paintings are celebrated worldwide. For the first time, Slonem’s birds are collected into a single, luxurious volume. In Bitty Birds, the Louisiana-born artist pays homage to these remarkable creatures through hundreds of engaging artworks. Dramatic and vivid, Slonem’s avian subjects seem unconfined to a flat surface, brimming as they are with texture and movement. The compelling nature of these paintings lies in the tension between the birds’ ability to soar and their often captive state (though Slonem’s own birds are often spotted flying around his studio). The world-renowned artist’s vibrantly patterned canvases are a celebration and a paean to birds, sure to entice returning fans and new viewers.

Hunt Slonem is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He is best known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings of butterflies, bunnies, and his tropical birds, often based on a personal aviary in which he has been keeping from 30 to over 100 live birds of various species. His flair and admiration for far-flung destinations has been a staple of his life since childhood. Slonem was born in 1951 in Kittery, Maine, and his father’s position as a Navy officer meant the family moved often during Hunt’s formative years, including extended stays in Hawaii, California and Connecticut. After graduating with a degree in painting and art history from Tulane University in New Orleans, Slonem spent several years in the early 1970s living in Manhattan, where early works were exhibited, thrusting him into the city’s explosive contemporary art scene. He received several prestigious grants, including from Montreal’s Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cultural Counsel Foundation’s Artist Project.. Slonem’s works can be found in the permanent collections of more than 300 museums around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Whitney, the Miro Foundation and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Just some of his numerous books and monographs include: Bunnies (G Editions, 2014), Birds (G Editions, 2017) and Hunt Slonem: An Art Rich and Strange (Harry N. Abrams, 2002).

Jacqueline Bograd Weld lives in New York City. She is the author of the novel Rara Avis and the biography Peggy: the Wayward Guggenheim. Currently, she is starring in a movie, based on her book Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict. She is also the chairman of the Board of Casita Maria, New York City’s oldest settlement house for the Latino community.