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Images depicting panoramic vistas, the intersection
of earth and sky, and society’s experience of the outdoors
have been grouped into the genre, “landscape.” This motif
absorbs the cultural ideas of the moment as well as the concerns
of individual artists. Paintings of high-keyed, swirling colors
and images of storms have expressed turbulent emotions and intense
moods, at times reflecting the literature of an era or personal
anxieties. Other painters and photographers have used the constantly
changing elements of the outdoors to investigate particular elements
of their craft, such as the effect of sunlight on a scene at various
times of day and in various seasons. Sometimes, the landscape becomes
a place of spiritual contemplation and communion. No matter what
the motive of the artist, landscapes have typically incorporated
a horizon line. While only a few of the works here include this
telltale feature, each artist references the various things that
the land represents: the earth’s physical components (such
as soil, vegetation, and water), personal memory, or cultural history.
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