Reading: Case Study: Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment, Princeton University Art Museum (Oct. 13, 2018–Jan. 6, 2019)
Introduction: Although the title of the exhibition, Nature’s Nation, suggests a “dreamy, apolitical” celebration of American landscape painting, this illusion is shattered as soon as the viewer encounters the pairing of Albert Bierstadt’s Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite and Valerie Hegarty’s Fallen Bierstadt.[1] Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment not only revives the art museum exhibition but also challenges the notion of what the Princeton University Art Museum and like institutions can and should do with their authority. Regarding the former, Nature’s Nation sparks dialogue between artworks ranging in genre, medium, and time period—for example, Morris Louis’s Intrigue and an 18th-century chest of drawers, taken together, problematize the materials that compose the myriad works of art that make up the exhibition. As for the latter, Nature’s Nation looks at environmental issues through the lens of art. Moreover, though the exhibition does not claim to have answers, it does raise questions of great import. Simply put, Nature’s Nation endeavors to upend the traditional approach to staging an exhibition, taking an ecocritical approach to understanding artworks from the past and present alike, and to invest the art museum with the power to explore issues whose significance transcends the art world, namely those concerning the environment.
Questions
- Do you feel that Nature’s Nation is successful in looking at these works of art through the lens of ecocriticism? Why or why not?
- Was the narrative of the show, as told by the works of art, effective?
- Which works were most compelling? Were there any works that did not quite cohere with the rest of Nature’s Nation?
- Wallach discusses the fear of traditional art historians that revisionist art historians “will neglect or ignore art’s aesthetic dimension”; does Nature’s Nation consider both the context (cultural, historical, political, social) and the “aesthetic dimension” of the various works of art? Why or why not?[2]
- Does Nature’s Nation take a subtle approach, like Wallach’s Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, or is (are) the thesis (theses) of the show clear? In other words, did you grasp the underlying purpose of the exhibition?
- After experiencing Nature’s Nation, are you convinced that the art museum is a space conducive to this kind of discourse? Why or why not?
- In what ways did the various works of art help you understand the concept of ecocriticism?
- In what ways did this exhibition seem relevant to your life?