Art:21 . Online Lesson Library . The Natural World . Resources

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Lesson 1—Ode to a View
above: drawing by Celmins

detail of Schorr's "Kindling and Deer Feed"

Lesson 2—Landscape and Place
above: photo by Schorr

Lesson 3—In the Landscape
above: land art by Turrell

Submit a lesson plan or student art work for The Natural World

The relationship between man and nature has been represented by in many ways and in many cultural forms. Visual art, novels, films, and songs all pose questions and assert opinions about the relationships between humans and animals, environmental responsibility, the nature of beauty, and mankind’s place in the landscape. These representations suggest our simultaneous reliance on and struggle for control over the natural world. The lessons in this section explore representations of the natural world made by contemporary artists in a variety of media including drawing, watercolor, photography, sculpture, and public interventions in the landscape, soil, and ecosystem.

Online Resources:
The Natural World

Background Information
• http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh/exhibits/north-south-east-west/
American Indians and the natural world, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh/exhibits/egypt/natural.html
The natural world, life in Ancient Egypt, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/natural/
Wonders of the natural world
• http://www.mnh.si.edu/
Smithsonian Institution
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
National Geographic

Artists who Address the Natural World
• http://www.walkerart.org/beuys/gg11.html
Joseph Beuys
• http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/
The art of Christo and Jean-Claude
• http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/natural_world.html
“Art of the Natural World: Recent Gifts from the Rosenblum Family Collection,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The following Web sites are cited in the individual lesson plans:

Odes
• http://www.empirezine.com/tech/7/htm
The literary form of the ode
• http://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html
William Wordsworth ode, “Intimation of Immortality”
• http://www.bartleby.com/101/624.html
John Keats ode, “Ode to a Nightingale”
Landscape Artists Born Before 1700
• http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?
Pieter Bruegel the Elder “The Harvesters”
• http://www.artsmia.org/mia/e_images/04/mia_4881e.jpg
Claude Lorrain “Pastoral Landscape”

Landscape Artists Born Between 1701-1800
• http://www.louvre.fr/anglais/collec/peint/rf1967/peint_f.htm
Joseph Turner “Landscape with a River and a Bay in the Background”
• http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/American/1907.35.html
Samuel F. B. Morse “The Chapel of the Virgin at Subiaco”

Landscape Artists Born Between 1801-1900
• http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/last/monet.leyden.jpg
Claude Monet “Bulbfield and Windmill Near Leyden”
• http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/fields/gogh.olive-trees.jpg
Vincent van Gogh “Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun”

Landscape Artists Born in the Twentieth-Century
• http://www.centrepompidou.fr/images/oeuvres/XL/4F45053.jpg
Balthus “Large Landscape with a Tree”
• http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?
Anselm Kiefer “Bohemia Lies by the Sea”Land Art and Artists
• http://www.bebeyond.com/LearnEnglish/DailyReadings/Arts/
Michael Heizer “City”
• http://www.lightningfield.org/
Walter DeMaria “Lightning Field”
• http://www.fondation.cartier.fr/eng/expo/etrenature/artistes/13.html
Ana Mendieta “Silueta Series”
• http://www.robertsmithson.com/earthworks/spiral_jetty.htm
Robert Smithson “Spiral Jetty”
• http://www.robertsmithson.com/earthworks/broken-circle_b.htm
Robert Smithson “Broken Circle”
• http://www.robertsmithson.com/earthworks/spiral-hill_b.htm
Robert Smithson “Spiral Hill”
• http://www.diacenter.org/ltproj/7000/index.html
Joseph Beuys “7000 Oaks”
• http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/T/T01/T01773_9.jpg
Dennis Oppenheim “Salt Flat”
• http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/P/P07/P07149_9.jpg
Richard Long “A Line Made by Walking”