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Human Nature: Environmental Studies at 50

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Human Nature: Environmental Studies at 50

Dates:

Location:

Becker Gallery
The exhibition celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Environmental Studies Program at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ by exploring how twentieth-century artists have reinforced or challenged ideas about nature and human beings’ relationship to it.

Selected Works

A photograph in orange tones showing a closeup of a swimming pool and diving board against the sky

Diving Board (Salton Sea), 1983, ektacolor print by Richard Misrach, American, born 1949.  Museum Purchase.  1985.26

 

A black and white photo showing the silhouette of a woman in a Mexican cemetary, with many birds swarming about

 

Cemetario, Juchitan, Oaxaca, 1988, gelatin silver print by Graciela Iturbide, Mexican, born 1942. Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. 2018.10.166

 

image of a young man in a white t-shirt, pointing towards the right, against a sky of orange clouds

Angel, 2007, c-print on mounted on Plexiglas, by Alfredo Jaar, Chilean, born 1956. Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. 2018.10.178

A wide image with Chinese text and drawings of people and animals near a body of water

The Three Gorges Dam Migration, 2009, watercolor and ink on mulberry paper and silk by Yun-Fei Ji, Chinese, born 1963. Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund. 2021.16

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In 1972, a group of º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ faculty and staff founded the Environmental Studies Program, one of the first in the nation. Human Nature: Environmental Studies at 50, organized by five Environmental Studies coordinate majors, celebrates this important anniversary by exploring how twentieth-century artists have reinforced or challenged ideas about nature and human beings’ relationship to it. Featuring works by a diverse range of artists held in the collections of the º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives at the º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Library, and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Human Nature investigates such themes as race, labor, gender, consumption, technology, Indigeneity, and migration. In so doing, it illuminates the contradictions and complexities of the Anthropocene: the current geological age when human activity has been the primary influence on the planet’s climate and environment.

View the Human Nature: Environmental Studies at 50 online publication.

Organizers
John Auer ’23
Tess Davis ’24
Sophia Hirst ’24
Hayden Keene ’23
Brandon Lozano ’24
Under the direction of Matthew Klingle, Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies