William Charles Anthony Frerichs (Belgian American, 1829-1905), Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, c. 1860. Oil on canvas, 22.25 × 34 in. Gift of Welborn & Patty Alexander. BRAHM Permanent Collection, 2014.1.03. Photo: Josh White
Landscape is never just scenery. Across American visual culture, images of land have shaped ideas about identity, ownership, belonging, and power—influencing how Americans understand both place and themselves. In this opening lecture for Horizon Line: 250 Years of American Landscape, BRAHM curator Ian Gabriel Wilson-Rhodes introduces the exhibition’s central ideas by exploring how representations of our physical surroundings have functioned not only as subjects for artists, but as a cultural framework through which Americans have imagined history, nationhood, and the environment.