Malcolm Andrews Landscape and Western Art chapter 1 Land into Landscape

This chapter reinforced what I had learnt when studying for my MA, that landscape is a construct ‘cultivated or wild, is already artifice before it has become the subject of a work of art’ pg1 which fits perfectly with my current research, which is an ancient path in the South Downs National Park, known as the South Downs Way, which again is a modern construct, including fragments of ancient paths, but at a glance interpreted as an ancient right of way.

The concept of framing the landscape can be traced back to a time when land ownership and controlling land either through farming or horticultural design, put man’ (I say man for socio-political reasoning) outside of nature, this is furthermore backed up biblically in the hierarchy of species as to who should have dominion over who.  

In this book Andrews examines our relationship towards landscape and its representation and how it has changed over the last 500 years, this chapter sets out his argument, asking questions ‘what constitutes landscape as distinct from land?’ and, ‘who is this ‘we’ that he refers to (as do I when writing)

Andrews draws on E.H. Gombriche’s 1960’s account of landscape, where it is defined through structuralism and the ‘the innocent eye is a myth’ pg3 which is a valid point. I find this visual editing of the landscape pertinent as I am aware of editing views when out on location, I am looking for varied tonal and linear viewpoints that allow for an interesting drawing as well as meaning to my research, which is another layer of interpretation and possibly only accountable through text.

I am intrigued with the notion of the ‘Argument’ within the landscape, a feature offering some form of narrative within a framed landscape and that without the Argument the landscape becomes wild and untamed and possibly unfathomable, the Argument, whether an object or person grounds the landscape picture.

Re the child having a sense of wonder at a beautiful view and appreciating the landscape, surely child psychology demonstrates that the baby and young child are the center of their own worlds/landscapes and that it is only as we age that we become detached from our surroundings, therefore I am not sure what Andrews is talking about.

Finally I really appreciated the work of Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid and the project “The People’s Choice” having established through thousands of questionnaires across various countries, what people like and dislike in landscape paintings, they set out to make the perfect landscape paintings for various countries, using questionnaires from which they made composite digital landscapes that each country considered pleasing, it did seem to be mountains, water, trees, Denmark wanted their national flag and ballet dancers in the landscape which I found amusing.