Martine Guiterrez, “Queer Rage, Imagine Life-Size, and I’m Tyra, p66-67” from “Indigenous Woman,” 2018.
Since it was first celebrated on April 22, 1970 as a U.S. holiday, and in the 1990s onward embraced as a global movement, Earth Day has focused on both celebration and protest. This year’s events include the “We Shall Breathe” Hip Hop Caucus, a Global Youth Summit, and a focus on conservation. The first Earth Day moved from an educational focus to a protest organized by Dennis Hayes and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, which garnered the support of an estimated 20 million participants world-wide.
Although not created for Earth Day, the following works of art both celebrate and offer glimpses of the sublime and sobering realities of this third rock from the sun.
Robyn O’Neil, “The Lost Landscape with Rainbow (based on Caspar David Friedrich,)” 2005.
Arthur Rothstein, “Fleeing a dust storm. Farmer Arthur Coble and sons walking in the face of a dust storm, Cimmaron County, Oklahoma,” April, 1936. (Library of Congress).
Kerry James Marshall, “Vignette 19,” 2014.
Lorna Simpson, “Blue Dark,” 2018. Ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass.
Dornith Doherty, “Red Yucca,” 2010.
Melissa Miller “The Ark,” 1986.
Henri Rousseau, “The Dream,” 1910.
Edvard Munch, “The Scream,” 1893.
Dennis Blagg “The Clearing,” 2013. Oil on canvas.
