Updating the Hudson River School of Art
Sublime beauty is not the only reason why the wilderness inspired Thomas Cole’s most esteemed paintings. He also revered wilderness because it embodied the wondrous workings of nature and the sacred mysteries of God. Cole watched with consternation as the Hudson Valley’s rugged wildness was leveled by railroads, paved by roads, rechanneled by mills, deforested by tanning industries, and tamed by farms. His romanticized nostalgia epitomizes the art of the region, known as the Hudson River School of painting, in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
Updating the Hudson River School of Art
Many contemporary artists are perpetuating Cole’s protest against the mindless pursuit of ‘progress’. However, the focus of their attempts to maintain the vitality of Hudson Valley is now referred to as ‘ecosystem’, not ‘landscape’. Landscapes address appearance. Ecosystems measure function. There is nothing romantic or nostalgic in these artists’ concerns about the region’s ability to support healthy populations of humans, crops, and farm animals. Yet they are reinvigorating the Hudson Valley School of art by celebrating the functional productivity of the region’s ecosystems.
I am one of these artists. My vision of an idealized landscape is provided by gardens and farms whose bountiful productivity does not compromise the health of soils, waters, air, insects, microbes, or wildlife. Let Us Eat the Colors of Nature’s Spectrum consists of twenty-six foods harvested from my gardens, preserved through canning, and arrayed according to the color continuum. Besides satisfying the pragmatic need to acquire nourishment, I hope to convey that local foods offer bountiful opportunities for sensual and aesthetic delight, thus reconfiguring ‘landscape art’ to reveals the concerns of the 21st century as Cole revealed those of the 19th century.