Student: Kyle Miller
Graduation date: May 2016
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2013
Summary
I am interested in studying the art of iconic landscapes. There are many places in the world that have become hubs for artistic pilgrims who capture the beauty and culture of the landscape. By studying the artistic representation of iconic landscapes you can gain an understanding of the cultural identity and history that shapes the landscape. When artists represent a landscape they are visualizing their perception of the land through their own narrative and emphasizing their relationship to the land. Art is becoming increasingly conscious of place and has begun to create new symbolic representations of the landscape and the culture of which it represents (Kwon 2004). Associating certain symbols with a specific landscape in artistic representations can create “tourist stereotypes [of] symbols of local ethnic identities” (Wilson 1997). The images and metaphors of the site specific art are drawn from regional cultural history as well as from contemporary tradition which together form ideologies about the iconic landscape (Wilson 1997). The isolated landscape’s artistic representation then can extend a specific hallmark of that place globally. The fame of the landscape can influence people to travel to these sites in order to look at art or represent them themselves. Human interpretations of landscapes can alter their reality by projecting cultural concepts of the ideal spaces. These interpretations can translate into how humans build their urban and rural environments (Daily 1997). Art, such as landscape photography and painting, is a great tool for understanding and visualizing the attributes of specific sites (Allen et al. 1998). On the other hand, art can alter the reality of those places by emphasizing certain qualities and ignoring ones that are not perceived as iconic to the place. Landscape art is an artifice of the real physical environment because every individual interprets his or her own surroundings differently. However, there are recurring visual prejudices in iconic landscape art because “landscape pictures breed landscape pictures” (Andrews 1999). Art is a form of discourse that can be used to understand what ignites the evolution of signature symbols and the materials that artists use to represent iconic landscapes. Artistic representation can be used to tap into the complex historical context of the origin of the landscape. Such “iconic landscapes” are therefore the outcome of people taking a space and creating meaning through social, cultural, political, and economic activity.
I, therefore, want to explore exactly how and why certain landscapes become iconic. I want to understand how they accumulate narratives and fame; and the specific temporal changes in these artistic motivations and depictions. It is interesting to focus on what is being represented repeatedly and who is creating these representations – whether it be visitors who travel to the site or locals of the region. These people who engage with the art of these landscapes are the actors that are propelling the fame of the landscapes by layering multiple narratives. Italy, Mount Fuji, and the American Southwest are all examples of places that embody the notion of an iconic landscape. All three differ drastically in their physical environment, cultural activities and history. However, they are all similar in that they rely heavily on certain signature artistic representations to shape the image of their cities. For example, Italy in the late 16th century was the Western birthplace of the concept of the visualization of the scenic dimension of a landscape through artistic means, such as painting (Cosgrove 1985). The creation of landscape paintings created a greater demand for land improvement in Italy, perhaps in order to help harmonize and romanticize the imagery of the landscape. Italy has since been the place to go to in order to understand how to conceptualize “nature across the surface of paintings” (Cosgrove 2006). On another part of the globe, the artistic culture of Japan has been transforming since pre-modern times when art was considered a group project that “appreciated the interactive process of creating art through an intense emotional rapture of synergy at the site of production” (Ikegami 2005). Even today, Japanese landscape art is influenced by an urgency to find a sense of cultural identity within the landscape. Mount Fuji is a major actor in creating culture in Japan. It is the most popular tourist site in Japan and an iconic symbol for the country. It is a landscape that has contributed to the cultural and religious identity of the Japanese. Finally, the American Southwest is another very iconic landscape in that it has been depicted numerous times by photographers, painters, filmmakers, and artists using various types of mediums. Artists are lured in by the stark desert landscape which they hope will reinforce their “wildest western expectations”(Klein 1993). Artists are key in depicting the signature attributes of the Southwest such as the arid landscape and the Native and Latin American influences prevalent in the region. Italy, Mount Fuji, and the American Southwest are ideal places because they all embody landscapes that are symbolic to certain cultures and histories.
References
Allen, C. D., Betancourt, J. L., & Swetnam, T. W. (1998). Landscape changes in the southwestern United States: techniques, long-term data sets, and trends. Perspectives on the land use history of North America: a context for understanding our changing environment. US Geological Survey, Biological Science Report USGS/BRD/BSR-1998-0003, 71-84.
Andrews, Malcolm. 1999. Landscape and Western Art. Oxford University Press.
Cosgrove, Denis. 2006. “Modernity, Community and the Landscape Idea.” Journal of Material Culture 11 (1-2) (July 1): 49–66. doi:10.1177/1359183506062992.
Cosgrove, Denis. 1985. “Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 10 (1) (January 1): 45–62. doi:10.2307/622249.
Daily, Gretchen C. 1997. Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Island Press.
Docherty, Thomas. 1993. Postmodernism: A Reader. Columbia University Press.
Florida, Richard. 2004. Cities and the Creative Class. Routledge.
Ikegami, Eiko. 2005. Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture. Cambridge University Press.
Kaye, Nick. 2013. Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation. Routledge.
Klein, Kerwin L. 1993. “Frontier Products: Tourism, Consumerism, and the Southwestern Public Lands, 1890-1990.” Pacific Historical Review 62 (1) (February 1): 39–71. doi:10.2307/3640522.
Kwon, Miwon. 2004. One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. MIT Press.
Matsuoka, Hideaki, and 松岡秀明. 2005. “Landscape as Doctrinal Representation: The Sacred Place of Shūyōdan Hōseikai.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32 (2) (January 1): 319–339.
National Geographic. 2013. “Mount Fuji.” Accessed November 15. http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/mount-fuji/.
Powell, Douglas Reichert. 2007. Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape. UNC Press Books.
Rothman, Hal. 2003. The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest. UNM Press.
Teague, David Warfield. 1997. The Southwest in American Literature and Art: The Rise of a Desert Aesthetic. University of Arizona Press.
Washburn, Dennis Charles. 2013. Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity. Columbia University Press.
Wilson, Chris. 1997. The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tradition. UNM Press.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are some of the narratives that are attached to iconic landscapes? Who are the actors in this creation process and how are their interpretations reflected in the meanings that emerge? How does landscape art commingle the built environment with the ecological environment? How do artists acknowledge human presence in the iconic landscape? What does artistic representation mean for the long term durability of iconic landscapes? How much of the encounter between the visitor and the landscape painting is true reality and how much of it is a constructed dream of venturing into the alluring world depicted on the canvas?
- Explanatory: How is landscape art a way to interpret the cultural layering that has happened over time? And how do certain cultures and ideals shape the imagery of the landscape?
Concentration courses
- ART 451 (Art of the American West 4 credits), spring 2014. This course examines how visual materials have shaped perceptions of the American West from the nineteenth century to the present. This class would be great for me to understand how the image of the American Southwest landscape was formed and the implications of the imagery.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study 4 credits), fall 2015. In this independent study I would focus my research in Japan on the Mt. Fuji trip looking at how Mt. Fuji has become at World Heritage Site.
- ART 316 (Ceramics III 4 credits), Fall 2014. As an advanced level of ceramics I was able to explore projects and ideas of my own. I focused on the artistic representation of landscapes through the medium of clay, thrown and hand built.
- IS 242 (ITALY Art History Italy 4 credits), Spring 2015. This class was extremely relevant to my concentration. We focused on how art structured the environment and culture of Italy. My concentration is situated in Italy. During this class we discussed how Siena’s landscape was transformed by different art movements throughout history. My final term paper focused on Massacio, an Italian artist that is called “The Grandfather of the Renaissance”. He was the first to paint ‘the truth’ and understand space and reality. He used mathematics to create a natural sense in his landscape paintings. This class involved class lectures as well as weekly field trips to various art galleries and buildings in Tuscany.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- HIST 297 (Topic: Science, Tech, & Culture, 4 credits). "This course examines the interrelationships among science, technology and culture from the scientific revolution through the industrial/technological revolutions to the development of the modern world."