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.
Dates & Venues
June 20–September 7, 2015
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
November 7, 2015–January 18, 2016
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, United States
February 27–May 29, 2016
Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Works of Art from the Terra Foundation Collection
- Alfred Thompson Bricher, The Sidewheeler “The City of St. Paul” on the Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa, 1872
- Thomas Cole, Landscape with Figures: A Scene from “The Last of the Mohicans”, 1826
- Sanford Robinson Gifford, Hunter Mountain, Twilight, 1866
- Martin Johnson Heade, Newburyport Marshes: Approaching Storm, c. 1871
- George Josimovich, Illinois Central, 1927 (São Paulo, Brazil only)
- Worthington Whittredge, Indian Encampment, between 1870 and 1876
Publication
Brownlee, Peter John, Valéria Piccoli, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, eds. Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
Co-curators’ essay: Peter John Brownlee, Valéria Piccoli, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, “New Worlds, New Art: Landscape painting in all the Americas, a touring exhibition and an inquiry,” The Magazine Antiques 182:6 (November/December 2015): 72–81.
Related Content
Picturing the Americas website: Picturing the Americas is accompanied by a responsive website that thoughtfully recreates the exhibition online, showcasing more than 90 paintings—which users can contextualize by theme, chronology, and geography—with texts available in four languages (English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish).
Related Videos
The following videos are from the Picturing the Americas International Symposium held at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, on November 13–14, 2015:
The following are video interviews with scholars and curators in the Picturing the Americas exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas:
The following are video interviews with curators, scholars, and artists to accompany the Picturing the Americas exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto:
