LINCOLN, NE.- Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska presents the exhibitions “Approaching Landscape” and “For Freedoms: In the future days …” from August 10 through December 31, 2018.

Wally Mason, Director and Chief Curator, explains that the two exhibitions explore issues currently on the minds of many people. “As we navigate daily through social and physical landscapes, we are increasingly cognizant of and vocal about change. ‘Approaching Landscape’ focuses attention on the convergence of nature and culture, on crossroads of human activity and perception.”

Emphasizing that each exhibition offers more questions than answers, Mason described “For Freedoms: In the future days …” as “an effort to draw on past and current events that shape, or have shaped, where we find ourselves currently.”

“Approaching Landscape”
Featuring more than ninety works from the museum’s permanent collection as well as several loans, “Approaching Landscape” considers how artists depict natural, built, and imaginary environments as ways to explore the complex relationships humans have with the places they move through, live and play in, cultivate, and desire.

This selection of artwork focuses viewers’ attention on the natural and cultural forces that comprise landscape and helps to make connections among works by artists who approach the subject in unique ways. For example, John Divola’s exploration of time and place, Leonardo Drew’s references to the natural process of decay and regeneration, Thomas Cole’s sublime view of the Catskills, Anthony Hernandez’s documentation of social territory, and Elizabeth Murray’s abstract exploration of memory and desire all remind the viewer that landscape is much more than just a vista to the horizon.

The museum also offers free, public programing in conjunction with its exhibitions. Photographers John Divola and Anthony Hernandez will be at Sheldon October 8 at 6 p.m. to discuss their shared interest in depicting remote and abandoned spaces in pursuit of the contemporary landscape. Toby Jurovics, Joslyn Art Museum’s Chief Curator and Richard & Mary Holland Curator of American Western Art, will act as moderator.

“For Freedoms: In the future days . . .”
The enduring relevance of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1941 “Four Freedoms” address is explored in “For Freedoms: In the future days …”—an exhibition drawn from Sheldon’s permanent holdings and those of private collections.

The exhibition features paintings, photographs, prints, and sculpture that explore freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These four freedoms, outlined by Roosevelt in 1941, became the basis for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948.

This Sheldon exhibition is part of the 50 State Initiative, a nonpartisan project organized by the artist-run For Freedoms Federation to advance art as a means of inspiring civic participation throughout the U.S.

Eric Gottesman, artist and cofounder of the For Freedoms Federation, will make a public presentation at Sheldon September 27 at 6 p.m. and will work directly with University of Nebraska-Lincoln students during his visit.