Why the Landscape?

People are still drawn to the Hudson Valley School painters and their vision of America as a new Eden, but in the beginning of the twentieth century, a handful of painters started to experiment with a more internal way of interpreting the natural world.

Early abstract landscapes by Arthur Dove and John Marin are still often misunderstood, and painters like Wolf Kahn were often not taken seriously by the New York art world because they focused on the landscape.

Landscape painting in America is often perceived as a decorative genre, is landscape painting relevant in today's digital world?

photos, from top clockwise:

Winthdrop Chandler, detail from over-the-mantel painting. circa 1758

John Marin, Weehawken NJ, 1910

Alex Katz, Pink Sky, 1955