Spiritual Geographies: Religion & Landscape Art in California

Spiritual Geographies explores the relationship between nature, landscape art, and religion in California from the 1890s to 1930s. At the start of this period, “geography” referred to a broad range of land imagery, including landscape painting, that was often reproduced in print alongside text.

In light of this original and expansive Victorian meaning, the exhibition considers how the geographical nature of landscape painting enabled it to circulate within religious printed materials that used landscape to construct spiritual meaning. As readers and writers of this devotional literature, California’s leading impressionist and early modernist artists painted landscapes that conveyed old and new spiritual ideas, contributing to the national perception of California as a place tolerant of experimentation and individual expression.