“Landscapes after Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime” Exhibition
Grey Art Gallery
[Image: Florian Maier-Aichen "Untitled (Mount Wilson)" (2002) Digital print, 64 x 81 ½ in., Hall Collection © Florian Maier-Aichen]
This event has ended.
In the current global environment—with nature threatened now more than ever—how is our contemporary landscape reimagined by artists? Landscapes after Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime explores this intriguing question through artworks that confront an increasingly sinister notion of the sublime. Curated by renowned photographer Joel Sternfeld, the exhibition features approximately 60 works by over 45 artists, including paintings, photographs, sculpture, installation, film, and video. Landscapes after Ruskin was organized by the Hall Art Foundation.
Works in the show span many styles—from realism to expressionism, abstraction to figuration—revealing the multiple ways that contemporary artists are addressing current environmental concerns. While early landscapists such as J. M. W. Turner, depicted the power of raw, unrestricted nature to overwhelm humanity, the artists featured in Landscapes after Ruskin are working in a climate of heightened anxiety, technological advancement, frequent natural disasters, and increasing human populations. The show includes works by established figures Joseph Beuys, Mary Corse, Eric Fischl, Anselm Kiefer, Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Ai Weiwei, Jane and Louise Wilson, and David Wojnarowicz alongside works by others who deserve to be better known, such as Naoya Hatakeyama, Dodo Jin Ming, Dora Longo Bahia, and Serban Savu.
Landscapes after Ruskin debuted at the Hall Art Foundation’s space in Reading, Vermont, in spring 2016 and was curated by artist Joel Sternfeld. As Sternfeld observes, “For a few short years in the 19th century, it was possible to experience what we can now with hindsight regard as an innocent sublime. Now that the landscape has become a place of fear and danger, we have only a calamitous sublime to behold. This show poses an exciting challenge as we hope to bring attention to the global issues that face humanity and the environment today.” Grey Art Gallery director Lynn Gumpert comments, “We are very pleased that Landscapes after Ruskin will travel to the Grey Art Gallery. As a university museum, we experiment with different exhibition formats, and we’re thrilled to present one curated by such a thoughtful and knowledgeable artist as Joel.”
Media
Schedule
from April 17, 2018 to July 07, 2018
Opening Reception on 2018-04-18 from 18:00 to 20:00