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Bobbe Besold, Bats (from the series Extinction), 1992, Van Dyke print with gouache, watercolor,…
Bats (from the series Extinction)
Bobbe Besold, Bats (from the series Extinction), 1992, Van Dyke print with gouache, watercolor,…
Bobbe Besold, Bats (from the series Extinction), 1992, Van Dyke print with gouache, watercolor, pastel, and graphite, 40 1/4 × 25 3/4 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Bobbe Besold, 2015 (2015.1.1). © Bobbe Besold.

Bats (from the series Extinction)

Artist (American, born 1950)
Author (American, 1924 - 2011)
Date1992
MediumVan Dyke print with gouache, watercolor, pastel, and graphite
DimensionsImage: 40 1/4 × 25 3/4 in. (102.2 × 65.4 cm)
Support: 48 × 32 in. (121.9 × 81.3 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Bobbe Besold, 2015
Object number2015.1.1
DescriptionA vertical composition with dark background with an image of the underside of a bat with its wings spread at top, a different bat with wings spread at center, and several banks of clouds below affixed with a red insignia and text.
Text Entries
The quotation that appears in the image is from the American poet John Haines. The artist cites the source as “Shadows” but cannot locate it and recalls that she found it excerpted in a secondary source from which she copied the text: “In colonial Mexico an old woman one day complained to two priests of their abuse of her. When in astonishment they protested, she reminded them that the day before they chased a bat from their house. ‘I was that bat,’ the old woman said, ‘and now I am exhausted.’ “
An avid reader and environmentalist, the artist was immersed in early writings about climate change and habitat losses in the late 1980s when she wondered what the world would be like without some of the plants and animals common to her daily life. The result was the “Extinction” series, an homage to the denizens of the rich natural world around her, some of whom have grown increasingly scarce in the years since the images were created.
On View
Not on view