Window to the Humanities

Milton Avery , American, 1885-1965: Village Rooftops, 1946; watercolor over black chalk with graphite. Gift of Luna E. Diamond.

Light in nature follows physical laws. Artists, art theorists, and scientists have attempted to understand and use these laws. This exhibition, like the first-year seminar for which it was designed, introduces some fundamental modern ideas of light and its action in the environment, and explores light's relationship to landscape art. The installation considers in part how artists follow the laws in order to create realistic pictures, in part how they modify the laws to create works with particular emotional or aesthetic effects. Thematic labels briefly explain the laws and invite viewers to explore how various artists have used and modified them.

There are four sections to the exhibition. (1) Sunlight and Color examines light from the sun and the scattering of light by the atmosphere, which creates the basic lightscape. (2) Reflection and Shadow considers reflection by the surface of the earth and by clouds. (3) Atmosphere, Distance, and Humidity explores reflection and scattering acting together to create regional differences in the appearance of landscapes. The final section puts all of the elements together to create (4) The Complete Lightscape.

Peter J. Robinson
Professor of Geography
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill