August 3, 2012
SHARK
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
May 2102 - January 2013
Designed and curated by Richard
Ellis, SHARK, a comprehensive exibit about sharks in art, literature, cinema,
photography and conservation, opened at the Museum of Art / Fort Lauderdale
(Florida). It includes photographs,
films, sculpture, and posters, as well as paintings and reproductions
representing the work of Charles R. Knight, Guy Harvey, Alexis Rockman, Robert
Longo, Ray Troll, Don Ray, Stanley Meltzoff, and Richard Ellis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(NY) has generously loaned us their copy of John Singleton Copley's "Watson and
the Shark," but not Winslow Homer's Gulf
Stream. The original painting by Roger Kastel, who did the most famous
shark painting in recent history, the steak-knife-toothed shark on the cover of
JAWS is on exhibit.
There are shark sculptures made of
rubber tires, automobile hubcaps, bronze, washing machine parts, stainless
steel, and found materials, as well as a table made by a Los Angeles sculptor
in the shape of a shark. There are 128 paintings from Princeton University
Press's Sharks of the World, by Marc Dando illustrating the diversity of
sharks; and sensational footage of various shark species underwater. Also
included are the shark-tooth club in the Peabody Essex Museum and another from
the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, shark masks and headdresses, and various
shark-related artifacts from The American Museum of Natural History's
anthropological collection. Actual fossils of long-extinct shark species have
been loaned by the American Museum of Natural History. Selected pieces from the
world's largest collection of JAWS
memoabilia are part of the exhibition.
SHARK: A VISUAL HISTORY, is the comprehensive
catalog of the show, which includes the artifacts, paintings, posters, etc. but
is also a book of about the place of sharks in our culture. There are chapters
on sharks in art, sharks in literature, sharks in the movies, sharks in the
wild, sharks in history, and sharks in our lives. The full-color catalog is
being published by Globe Pequot Press.
April 7, 2011
The Great Sperm Whale: A Natural History of the World's Most Magnificent and Mysterious Creature, University Press of Kansas, 2011
RECENT REVIEWS
Mike Rogers - Library Journal
Anyone familiar with Ellis's work knows his fascination with Physeter
macrocephalus, the sperm whale. These creatures were included
in his previous volumes, The Book of Whales and Men and Whales,
but here take center stage. Not a rehash of that info, Ellis’s intent here is
to pull together all those disparate discussions and add substantial new
material. Paying homage to Herman Melville, the great author and his
masterpiece, Moby-Dick, are referenced throughout this volume, which
approaches these cetaceans from a number of facets; their history (as well as
we know it) and legend, biology, social lives, human interaction (they're
friendly), adversarial relationship with and taste for squid (best chapter
title: "I'll Have the Calamari"), the whaling industry, and efforts to
protect them. Buttressing the text, which though it incorporates science lingo
is still accessible to lay readers, are 122 photos and illustrations, many of
which are Ellis's original artworks. VERDICT At once a richly detailed,
informative, scientific exploration as well as a love sonnet to the ocean’s
greatest leviathan, this will appeal to fans of nautical history, nature,
Melville, and armchair cetologists. A superb addition to Ellis's canon.
The Scientist, Vol. 26, Issue 4, pg. 75
Like an aesthetic Ahab chasing his Like an aesthetic Ahab chasing his quarry
through the inky depths, author, marine naturalist, conservationist, and
painter Richard Ellis sets out to capture the mighty Physeter macrocephalus
by laying bare its secrets in his latest book, The Great Sperm Whale.
But unlike the tragic hero of Herman Melville's American masterpiece, Ellis
succeeds in capturing his muse-alive. The author explores virtually every
fascinating aspect of the species: its evolutionary roots as a terrestrial
carnivore, its mysterious diving physiology and unique anatomy, its place in
literature and popular culture, and the uncertain future of today's surviving
sperm whales. As well as a deep dive into the sperm whale's evolutionary
history, physiology, anatomy, behavior, and ecology, the book is also part
autobiography, serving as a window on Ellis's lifelong passion for following,
learning from, and painting the ocean's inhabitants. The Great Sperm Whale
is a delightful and informative read. Save a spot for it on the shelf next to Moby
Dick.
August 20, 2010
On the Line
To hear Richard Ellis on Voice of America click here.
The World Wide Fund for Nature is urging the Japanese people to stop eating bluefin tuna. Three quarters of the bluefin consumed in the world is eaten in Japan, where it is prized as sushi and sashimi. Bluefin have been fished aggressively for decades, and the ocean's population of the big, fast-swimming tuna has dropped dramatically.
An effort this year to protect the fish through a ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna exports failed. Japan successfully lobbied against the ban at a meeting in March of this year of the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
This program of On The Line explores how serious the depletion of bluefin tuna in the world's oceans has become and what it tells us about the dangers of overfishing in other kinds of fish.