Thu 4/1 @ 3PM
The current exhibit, Picturing the Land, at Oberlin’s Allen Memorial Art Museum, looks at the idea of the human view of, and impact on, the land, through landscape painting from 1500-1900, taken from the museum’s own collection. In the words of the exhibit statement, it “explores how artists mediated and defined perceptions of the land: as a place devoid of humans, an imagined or real world, a locus of leisure and play, a site of labor, a source of food and sustenance, and a contested space to be colonized and defended by force.”
It relates that to the so-called “anthropocene era,” a term that crops up frequently in discussions of climate change, referring to the time period (a time that’s widely disputed) when the actions of humans became the major factor in impacting earth’s environment.
In the webinar “Painting the American Wasteland,” Maggie Cao of the University of North Caroline, looks at one specific aspect of human perception of the American landscape: the portrayal of marshes and swaps, once considered useless wastelands to be “improved” out of existence. She’ll pose questions such as “Why did landscape painters portray these so-called wastelands in the Civil War era?,” “How did these unusual environments challenge the conventions of landscape painting?,” and “How do the wastelands of the past relate to our current understanding of wetlands?” The Allen’s assistant curator of European and American art, Alexandra Levin, will moderate a Q&A after the talk.
Go here to register for this event, which is free and open to all.
Oberlin, OH 44074