What Is the Modern Environmental Art Movement?

Art|Modern Art

The modern environmental art movement began in the 1960s with a focus on the conservation of nature, and has since evolved to embrace a variety of ecological concerns. This movement is often characterized by a combination of aesthetics and activism, and uses visual art as a medium for promoting awareness about environmental issues.

The first wave of modern environmental art emerged in the late 1960s with works by artists such as Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, and Richard Long. These artists used the land as their canvas, creating large-scale installations that were both visually striking and conceptually provocative. For example, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) is an iconic artwork composed of rocks and mud on the shoreline of Utah’s Great Salt Lake that evokes notions of entropy and time within a natural environment.

Since then, the movement has grown to encompass artworks that address a wide range of ecological issues including climate change, species extinction, industrialization, overconsumption, water pollution, deforestation, urbanization and more. Artists such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude use land-based installation artwork to explore our relationship with nature; while others such as Ai Weiwei use activism-oriented projects to draw attention to social injustice or government policies.

In addition to land-based installations, some contemporary environmental artists are using new digital technologies to create interactive works that engage viewers in meaningful conversations about sustainability. For instance, artist Karolina Sobecka’s EcoVis (2015) is an interactive app designed to visualize data related to global water usage; while artist Natalie Jeremijenko’s Tree Logic (2010) is an installation featuring robotic trees that respond to viewers’ questions about climate change.

Conclusion: The modern environmental art movement has seen tremendous growth since it began in the 1960s. It now encompasses a broad range of aesthetic practices and themes related to ecology and sustainability that aim to raise awareness about important ecological issues. Through land-based installations, digital technologies, activism-oriented projects and more, contemporary environmental artists are contributing thought-provoking works that challenge us to consider our relationship with nature in new ways.