Terra Collection Initiative: Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic

Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic was the first exhibition to examine landscape paintings from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth in an inclusive, pan-American context. Featuring works by key landscape practitioners from across the Americas, the exhibition investigated the role of landscape painting in the formation of national identities, the study and uses of the land, and the land as a space of encounter, contest, and contemplation.

The exhibition uncovered the interconnected history of the pan American experience while also underscoring differences in approaches towards land, people, and nationhood, tracing evolving attitudes toward the land from an ideology of territorial possession to a sense of personal belonging. Thematically organized, the exhibition placed special emphasis on the art of Argentina and the Rio de la Plata region; the Andean region, including Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela; Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Canada.

A collaboration between the Terra Foundation, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, Picturing the Americas included approximately 120 works of art comprised of loans from museums and private collections located throughout the Americas as well as from the collections of the three partner institutions. It opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario during the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada before traveling to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Pinacoteca de São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil.