Nature’s Nation : American Art and Environment

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nor has the need for imagining more sustainable and ethical habits of human action and thought, including environmentally informed ways of understanding art history. This multidisciplinary book offers the first broad ecocritical review of American art and examines the environmental contexts of artistic practice from the colonial period to the present day. Tracing how visions of the environment have changed from the Native-European encounter to the emergence of modern ecological activism, more than a dozen scholars and practitioners discuss how artists have both responded to and actively instigated changes in ecological understanding. Far-reaching in its interpretive approach, Natures Nation looks at artworks acrossgenres and mediaincluding painting, sculpture, prints, photography, decorative arts, and videorevealingimportant new discoveries about creative encounters with environmental history and politics through materials, techniques, subjects, and ideas. The book features work by more than onehundred artists, from Charles Willson Peale, Thomas Cole, and Winslow Homer to Georgia OKeeffe, Jacob Lawrence,and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Providing a fascinating and timely reframing of more than three centuries of American art, this volume is a powerful example of how greater ecological consciousness can expand and enrich the discipline of art history.