TitleCarcass Caucus
Artist
Janet Elizabeth Turner
(1914-1988)
Date1971
MediumColor embossed linocut and screenprint on cream laid Japanese paper
DimensionsImage size: 10 1/2 × 14 15/16 in.
Sheet size: 13 1/4 × 19 5/8 in.
Mat size: 18 × 22 in.
Edition50/60
SignedSigned in graphite at LR: "Janet Turner imp."
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, October 7, 1974
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1982.2465
Label TextThis title of this work, which depicts a group of birds picking the bones of a carcass clean, may be a humorous reference to the Texan slang phrase for a barbecue or meat cookout. Janet Turner was renowned for her realistic renderings of wildlife in natural habitat. She studied botany and far eastern history at Stanford University, and in order to improve her understanding of the natural world, orthinology and natural history. She taught art at the Stephen F. Austin State College in Nacogdoches, Texas from 1948-1956 and became actively involved in printmaking while teaching there. She was also a professor at the California State University in Chico from 1959 to 1980, which owns her lifelong collection of prints that are exhibited in the Janet Turner Print Gallery. Turner said, "my work lacks the drama of war, personal tragedy or struggle against oppression. Such expression from me would be second hand response to experiences of others that reach me via news media…My work comes from my evolving knowledge of social, biological and ecological relationships. I am awed by the richness of nature, interested in details of fur and feathers, which have meaning because they evolved from the relationship of one thing to another. I am commenting on the power of man and the instability of his social structures. Has mankind the wisdom to deserve the place of dominance in the world?"
