Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781 - 2022
The final instalment of the RWA鈥檚 elements series, Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022 tackles the most expansive and urgent of subject matters, bringing together important modern, historical and contemporary artworks, co-curated by artist Emma Stibbon RA RWA, art historian Professor Emerita Christiana Payne (Oxford Brookes University) and Nathalie Levi (Head of Programme 鈥� Curator of Exhibitions, RWA). It follows The Power of the Sea: Making Waves in British Art 1790-2014 (2014), Air: Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768-2017 (2017) and Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art 1692-2019 (2019).
Earth examines how attitudes towards the landscape have evolved over the centuries and how artists鈥� approaches have changed over time; from the pastoral idylls of the 18th century, through representations of the Romantic Sublime, to present-day confrontations of the climate emergency. Encompassing depictions of the natural world from geological, spiritual, industrial, cultural and scientific perspectives.
This exhibition goes deep beneath the earth, exposes the core materiality of its elements, explores the substance of the surface, climbs dizzying heights and perches perilously on its edges. It bears witness to the earth鈥檚 mistreatment and its magnificence, its fullness and its fragility. Earth surveys the representation of our environment across four centuries, inviting us to consider our planet in all its abundance, precarity and preciousness.
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The final instalment of the RWA鈥檚 elements series, Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022 tackles the most expansive and urgent of subject matters, bringing together important modern, historical and contemporary artworks, co-curated by artist Emma Stibbon RA RWA, art historian Professor Emerita Christiana Payne (Oxford Brookes University) and Nathalie Levi (Head of Programme 鈥� Curator of Exhibitions, RWA). It follows The Power of the Sea: Making Waves in British Art 1790-2014 (2014), Air: Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768-2017 (2017) and Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art 1692-2019 (2019).
Earth examines how attitudes towards the landscape have evolved over the centuries and how artists鈥� approaches have changed over time; from the pastoral idylls of the 18th century, through representations of the Romantic Sublime, to present-day confrontations of the climate emergency. Encompassing depictions of the natural world from geological, spiritual, industrial, cultural and scientific perspectives.
This exhibition goes deep beneath the earth, exposes the core materiality of its elements, explores the substance of the surface, climbs dizzying heights and perches perilously on its edges. It bears witness to the earth鈥檚 mistreatment and its magnificence, its fullness and its fragility. Earth surveys the representation of our environment across four centuries, inviting us to consider our planet in all its abundance, precarity and preciousness.
Artists on show
- Abigail Lane
- Alice Cunningham
- Andrew Hardwick
- Anthony Gross
- Anthony Whishaw
- Anya Gallaccio
- Carol Rhodes
- Dalziel & Scullion
- Dame Laura Knight
- David Nash
- Edward Calvert
- Edward Chell
- Edward William Cooke
- Emma Stibbon
- Eric Ravilious
- Fiona Hingston
- Francis Towne
- George Clausen
- Graham Sutherland
- John Constable
- John Sell Cotman
- Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Julian Perry
- Kabir Hussain
- Kathy Prendergast
- Katie Paterson
- Mariele Neudecker
- Mary Buckland
- Michael Porter
- Paul Nash
- Philip James de Loutherbourg
- Richard Long
- Rodney Harris
- Samuel Jackson
- Samuel John Lamorna-Birch
- Samuel Palmer
- Siobhan McDonald
- Stanley Spencer
- Susan Derges
- Tania Kovats
- Thomas Gainsborough
- Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
- William Henry Hunt
- Yinka Shonibare
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