Landscape art centres on the depiction and interpretation of the natural world, with artists turning their attention to land, atmosphere, and ecological surroundings as primary subjects. While landscape has been a longstanding genre in art history, modern and contemporary practices often approach it not merely as scenery but as a way of reflecting on humanity’s relationship with nature. Through shifting perspectives, light, and terrain, artists explore themes of environment, place, and ecological change. Artists such as Claude Monet and J. M. W. Turner transformed the landscape into a site of sensory experience, capturing the fleeting effects of light, weather, and atmosphere. Emerging in the late 1960s alongside the rise of ecological consciousness, environmental artists further involve site-specific works that exist outside traditional gallery settings, responding to the physical conditions and histories of particular places. These works frequently address themes of environmental degradation, sustainability, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. In India, painters like Ram Kumar and Nicholas Roerich reimagined the landscape through expressive abstraction and spiritual associations with nature. Today, landscape art continues to evolve as a powerful lens through which artists reflect on the environment, memory, and the changing condition of the natural world.

Read—Being Ecological by Timothy Morton