A contemporary view of the history of Landscape art and artists in relation to climate change

Abstract

Climate change has in the past and remains today a major factor of the natural world that is being fast tracked by human exploitation. Through the critical analysis of landscape and land art and artists from the lens of both South African Land artist Strijdom van der Merwe and current opinion regarding the ecological impacts of climate change, we are able to view historical land/landscape art in a different, more environmentally considerate light. The environmental exploitation our world faces does not end in its physical exploitation, instead, it includes Humankind’s capacity to dominate the visual and representational aspect of environmental perception.