John Gurche is an American artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and sketches of prehistoric life, especially

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s and early humans. Gurche is currently an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York. Gurche studied Anthropology and Paleontology at the University of Kansas, but his study of art was limited to his days in middle school. Also while in middle school, Gurche attempted to create a "family tree for all animal life," and fashioned an evolutionary series of heads from clay while in fourth grade. Gurche's works have been on display at the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. He has created illustrations for '' National Geographic'', and designed a set of four

-themed stamps that were released by the

US Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

in 1989. Due to his paintings of dinosaurs, Gurche was given a role as a consultant for the movie '' Jurassic Park''. In 2000, he received the Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize from the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members inter ...

for his mural of Sue the ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

'', a piece which accompanies the dinosaur's skeleton at the Field Museum. In 2013 he published a book detailing his work on the fifteen paleoanthropology projects he had completed for the

's National Museum of Natural History's Hall of Human Origins titled ''Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins ''. Much of the book discusses the uncertainty of his work and his field.

References

External links

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Video of John Gurche constructing figures for the Hall of Human Origins

Scientist of the Day-John Gurche
at

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Paleoartists University of Kansas alumni 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors American stamp designers {{US-artist-stub