Landscape and Imagination: From Gardens to Land Art

JMW Turner, The Lake, Petworth, Sunset; Sample Study, ca. 1827-8, Tate (Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856). Photo Tate

Landscape and Imagination explores the beauty of nature, reimagined and reinterpreted through the hands of artists and landscape designers who throughout history have felt the urge to shape the land around them. The exhibition explorse the relationship between art, gardens, and landscape through a range of beautiful loans by major artists such as JMW Turner, Nicolas Poussin, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Anya Gallaccio. From the formal grounds of the 17th and 18th centuries to smaller flower-filled gardens of the 19th and 20th centuries, artists and garden designers have made their mark on the landscape around them. Today, environmentally conscious land artists undertake earth moving schemes which echo the grand planting schemes of the past. This exhibition questions whether these artistic visions of the ideal landscape have warped our concept of what is truly natural and how art can work together with nature to reverse the decline of our green spaces. Children and families are able to imagine their own colourful and fantastical landscapes through playful interactive activities in the exhibition galleries.