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Journeys: Landscape as Self Expression

Brunnier Art Museum
January 21–July 27, 2025

Joseph Stella painting "Tree of my Life"

Tree of My Life, 1919 by Joseph Stella (Italian-American, 1877 – 1946). Oil on canvas. On loan from Art Bridges.

The landscape genre has been explored through a range of artistic media for centuries. Humans have always been drawn to the beauty, mystery, and volatility that exists within the natural world. As in nature, those same qualities can be found in people; humans are endlessly fascinating in their diversity and strangeness. Throughout time artists have turned to the landscape as a form of self-expression and reflection on humanity, instead of merely an idealized depiction. Landforms and nature are mined for imagery, often collaged together, and abstracted as a conduit for the feelings and emotions of an artist. When used in this manner, the landscape no longer acts as an alternative for nature, but rather becomes a highly personalized metaphor for an artist and greater humanity.

Journeys: Landscape as Self Expression explores a variety of uniquely expressive landscapes—including seascapes, cityscapes, and even space— which have been created by artists working in a range of media and time periods. Photography is used to examine the humanity inherently tied to a landscape, but also a pristine self-portrait of nature before human-made disturbances. Abstract works of art collage and reconstruct natural forms for a personal expression of self or an individual distillation of nature to pure colors or forms. Also included in the exhibition are beautiful landscapes, with examples that push beyond just beauty. Instead, they whisper or scream an artist’s identity through their choice to express magnificence in the nature they are deeply connected to and as way to share their perspective.

Landscapes are an important genre of art and one often well received by art museum visitors. Journeys: Landscape as Self Expression challenges viewers to consider the humanity found in nature, and the genre as a tool for identity and self-expression rather than merely for beauty. Included are loaned works of art along with many examples from University Museums’ permanent collection, exhibited in a manner to impactfully represent the myriad of ways artists work with landscapes and identity.


 

Exhibition Programs

Find full descriptions of programs on the University Museums Calendar. All programs are free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required. Click the event title for more information and/or to register. Events listed below will be at the Brunnier Art Museum (1805 Center Dr., 295 Scheman Building, Ames, Iowa) unless otherwise noted. Times are in Central Standard Time (CST). Programs are subject to change. Check the University Museums Calendar and Facebook page for the latest events information.

Brooklyn and Basilicata: Locating Modernity in Joseph Stella’s "Tree of My Life"

February 11, 2025, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Virtual on Zoom

with Kyle Mancuso, Curatorial Research Associate, High Museum of Art

Best remembered for his large-scale, Futurist-inspired paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge, Italian-born American modernist Joseph Stella was equally inspired by the natural world as seen in one of his most ambitious paintings Tree of My Life (1919). Learn how Stella's paintings and personality were deeply linked and in what way the changing Italian landscape of the 1910s and 20s complicates the understanding of the artist's experience in the country of his birth.

Virtual on Zoom | Register to be emailed the Zoom link information.

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Explore! Museums: Nature Story Walk

Family Event

February 22, 2025, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Explore a story through art! Kids and their families are invited to follow a story through the exhibition Journeys: Landscapes as Self-Expression, take home a book, and join in fun nature inspired activities with ISU School of Education students and faculty.

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Poetic Autoethnography of Place: Poems of Experience in/of the Natural World

February 25, 2025, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

with Katherine Richardson Bruna, Willie and Kathleen Robinson ISU 4U Promise Professor, School of Education

Poetry heightens attention to sense of self and writing a poem is a reflective and creative exercise. To write a poem about nature elevates our interconnection with other living things and is both grounding and generative. Practice reading and writing poems that celebrate our experiences in the natural places that make us who we are. Come with a place in mind and leave with a poem!

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Museum Meetup: Wellness and Expression

March 27, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Discover techniques of holistic wellbeing inspired by landscapes on exhibition at Brunnier Art Museum! Engage personal wellness at a biofeedback station, examine Midwestern ecology, and express yourself with an improvisational photography session.

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Explore! Museums: Flowers

Family Event

March 29, 2025, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Explore the beauty and meanings of flowers! Find the artistic flowers in the exhibition Journeys: Landscape as Self-Expression and join in dissecting real flowers and creating your own artful flowers with Reiman Gardens and the ISU Horticulture Department.

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Wind and Flame on the Grassland: Landscape and Identity in History

March 30, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Dr. Julie Courtwright, Professor of History at Iowa State University, will examine how wind and fire have shaped the grassland for thousands of years. In the process, these forces of nature have also shaped the history of the people who have called the place home -- whether they've liked it or not.

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Explore! Museums: Trees

Family Event

April 26, 2025, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Explore the many trees, from artistic to realistic, on exhibit in the Brunnier Art Museum! Families are invited to create their own trees, learn to recognize different types of trees, and more with ISU Natural Resource and Ecology Management students.

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Curator’s Tour of "Journeys: Landscape as Self-Expression"

May 11, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (US Central)

Location: Brunnier Art Museum, 295 Scheman Building

Discover the many ways artists use the landscape to explore their own identities with Brunnier Art Museum curator Adrienne Gennett. This will be the last chance to see some of the artwork on view in the exhibition before they return to the lending institution.

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Visit the Brunnier Art Museum

Hours: 
Tuesday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
Closed to the public Mondays. ISU curriculum tours may be scheduled on these days with a 2-week notice.

Closed University Holidays
Click here to see when the museums are closed.

Address: Scheman Building (2nd Floor), 1805 Center Drive, Ames, Iowa
Admission: The cost is free; however, there is a suggested donation of $8.

 


This exhibition is curated and organized by University Museums. Generous support for the exhibition was given
by ISU Athletics; Warren and Beverly Madden; Patti Cotter and Peter Orazem; Marcia and Jim Borel; Greater
Iowa Credit Union; Sidney Robinson; and University Museums Membership. University Museums also thanks our
lenders to the exhibition: Art Bridges; Des Moines Art Center; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; Stanley Museum of Art,
University of Iowa; Cara Romero; and Rachel Sussman.

 

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