A groundbreaking ecocritical exploration of American art that examines
the complex and evolving relationship between art and the environment
Public awareness of environmental issues has never been greater, nor has
the need for imagining more sustainable and ethical habits of human
action and thought, including environmentally informed ways of
understanding art history. This multidisciplinary book offers the first
broad ecocritical review of American art and examines the environmental
contexts of artistic practice from the colonial period to the present
day. Tracing how visions of the environment have changed from the
Native-European encounter to the emergence of modern ecological
activism, more than a dozen scholars and practitioners discuss how
artists have both responded to and actively instigated changes in
ecological understanding.
Far-reaching in its interpretive approach, Nature's Nation looks at
artworks across genres and media--including painting, sculpture, prints,
photography, decorative arts, and video--revealing important new
discoveries about creative encounters with environmental history and
politics through materials, techniques, subjects, and ideas. The book
features work by more than one hundred artists, from Charles Willson
Peale, Thomas Cole, and Winslow Homer to Georgia O'Keeffe, Jacob
Lawrence, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.
Providing a fascinating and timely reframing of more than three
centuries of American art, this volume is a powerful example of how
greater ecological consciousness can expand and enrich the discipline of
art history.
