Landscapes after Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime

Landscapes after Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime explores contemporary painting, photography, sculpture, and video through the lens of influential English art critic and social thinker John Ruskin (1819–1900), who argued that the artist’s principal responsibility is “truth to nature.” For Ruskin, this “truth” was more than just a technical representation of the natural world on canvas but also a depiction of it as experienced by humankind. In Landscapes after Ruskin, guest curator and artist Joel Sternfeld examines how, in a world overwhelmed by industrial development and environmental uncertainty, contemporary artists are discovering new beauties and terrors associated with nature and, in so doing, invoking an updated sense of the sublime. The exhibition features a wide range of works by over fifty artists, including Richard Artschwager, Christiane Baumgartner, Katherine Bradford, Spencer Finch, Neil Jenney, Raymond Pettibon, Michal Rovner, Ai Weiwei, and David Wojnarowicz, among others. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.