Encounter the exotic in Bruce Museum exhibition

There are those in our town who might travel at the drop of a hat to see special exhibits of art in London or Rome, or who go on archeological digs, or who travel to Italy to paint plein air. But for those armchair travelers stuck at home this winter, the Bruce Museum has gathered together a diverting and extraordinary array of 70 of its more fascinating objects for a show titled "Exotic Encounters: Art, Travel, and Modernity in the Collection of the Bruce Museum."

This reporter profited by a tour of the exhibit given by Kenneth Silver, New York University Professor of Art History, who curated the show and has penned such books as "Making Paradise: Art, Modernity, and the Myth of the French Riviera."

The exhibit begins with a romantic ivory fan of German origin from the early 1900s, a memento from a Caribbean cruise ship -- which apparently ran aground. Its route is scrawled in ink across the fan.

Also on display is a colossal pair of elephant tusks in mint condition, having just been conserved by the Museum of Natural History in New York. "Their elaborate stands are from the early 20th century. They were made for the European trade," says Silver, -- in the days when such trophies were acceptable. (There was no indication of who had donated the tusks.)

Especially evocative is a new collection of vintage sepia photos of 19th century Egypt taken by an Italian-British photographer, Antonio Beato. Two were of Karnak, Statue of Ramses and of the Colossus of Memnon. "These Beato photos send an electric charge through me," says Silver. One photo of the Sphinx, by an unknown photographer, shows it in its half-covered-with-sand days, lending the ancient object even more mystery.

Standing tall near the photographs is a stark white Belleek porcelain Irish urn of 1900. "There were five of these made for the World's Fair," said Silver. It was a gift of Mrs. Horace Steadman.

Gracing the gallery is a life-size bronze of a "Neapolitan Fisherboy" listening to a scallop shell held at his ear. It was sculpted in 1857 by a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, and donated by Myrna Ruben Haft.

Wondrous carved wooden tobacco pipes from South Africa -- each one more bizarre than another, given to the Bruce by the U.S. Tobacco Company, are also part of the exhibit. "Some look cubist," Silver says. "The makers didn't realize they were making art."

Silver's intent in curating the show is to portray "a palimpsest of American collecting habits." So, the eye sought out familiar Greenwich names and came upon the donor name of actress/dancer Madelyn O'Neil formerly of Cos Cob, which was listed beside a magnificent Imperial Chinese robe with golden threads. The robe is one of many brought back from China by O'Neil's Bostonian father, John Phillips, a noted conservationist and wildlife biologist who often visited his distinguished diplomat brother, William Phillips, where he was posted, in China, India, Belgium and Italy.

John Phillips was a bird fancier and no doubt would have known of the two exotic birds on display, the six-plumed parotia male, a native of New Guinea, in all its fluffed up majesty, and the Prince Albert lyrebird from Australia.

As we moved from Europe and Asia to the Western Hemisphere, we stopped before a case full of Inuit soapstone art created with encouragement by the Canadian Government after World War II for the tourist trade, says Silver. Gifford Agnew of Greenwich managed to collect some of the best, with some pieces going back to 1890.

Art from the Southwest then took over the ensuing galleries. "The Native American collection is the most comprehensive in the Museum," says Silver.

Impressive was the case of early 20th century Maria Martinez black-on-black pottery with its modernized native designs that Silver particularly admires.

Pre-Columbian art was represented by an astonishing pair of 2,000-year-old-plus seated ceramic figures from Mexico, the prize of Mrs. J. Russell Maguire. And then there was the handsome rawhide buckskin jacket with the turquoise beading that any gringo would be proud to don, donated by W. H. Talmadge.

Greenwich artist Carol Anthony was represented by two sumptuous watercolor landscapes of New Mexico that were cunningly applied to manila envelopes -- art on the spot to be sent home. Her travel take was similar to New Yorker artist Saul Steinberg's famed postcard painting series.

An archival New Yorker cartoon at the beginning of the show features a NASA Voyager spacecraft on the moon with artisan arms painting a moonscape au plein air. It brought to mind a recent New Yorker cartoon of a couple looking out their window at a spaceship landing nearby with a crowd of aliens flowing out. The caption read, "They're here on a tour."

And so, too, should you be -- at the Bruce.

"Exotic Enconters" will be on display until April, 25. The Muserum is located at 1 Museum Drive. For more information call 869-6786.