NEW YORK, NY.- This spring, the New-York Historical Society presents Nature, Crisis, Consequence, a groundbreaking art exhibition that looks at the social and cultural impact of the environmental crisis on different communities across America. On view March 31 – July 9, 2023, the exhibition draws from New-York Historical’s permanent collection, recent acquisitions, and loaned works, which collectively span the history of the United States and presents subjects ranging from the proto-environmentalism of the Hudson River School to the razing of homes and churches to clear land for Central Park, the environmental and human tolls of the transcontinental railroad, and Indigenous artists’ calls to environmental action. Nature, Crisis, Consequence is curated by Dr. Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, New-York Historical’s senior curator of American art.

“This soul-searching exhibition illustrates the historical contest between humans and nature through art, and focuses on the enduring consequences of centuries of man-made ecological degradations in America,” said Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang, chair of the Board of Trustees at New-York Historical. “We believe that the preservation of nature is an important part of responsible citizenry, which has been New-York Historical’s mission since our founding in 1804. We are proud to be the first American art museum to spotlight modern interpretations of landscapes by renowned Indigenous contemporary artists Fritz Scholder (Luiseño) and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee) with classical masterpieces of the Hudson River School by Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt.”




Nature, Crisis, Consequence explores how art offers ways to reach toward environmental justice. It brings forth the idea that the environmental crisis is not only a scientific problem with natural-world effects but also a human problem with human impacts—of people fleeing extreme weather, for example, consuming contaminated resources, and grappling with anxiety over ecological loss and an uncertain future. The exhibition features New-York Historical’s iconic Course of Empire (1833-36) by Thomas Cole, which has long served as a prescient warning against uncontrolled expansion into the natural world; an arresting seascape by Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee, b. 1935) overlaid by abstract Pequot/Narragansett iconography, which reclaims Indigenous heritages along the New England coast; and a woven ceramic basket by Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock, b. 1980) invoking the mass fish die-offs around Long Island caused by climate change.

Other highlights include works like Great Blue Heron (1821-1824) by John James Audubon, whose lifelike and life-sized portrayal of North American birds spurred early conservation efforts; Albert Bierstadt’s Donner Lake from the Summit (1873), commissioned by the railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington to commemorate the 1869 completion of the transcontinental railroad; and artist Oscar yi Hou’s (b. 1998) portrayal of an Asian cowgirl inspired by the history of Chinese immigrants in the shaping of the American West. A flamboyant feather mask by the late New York Times photojournalist Bill Cunningham (1929-2016) featuring only domestic bird and fowl feathers in accordance with the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act is shown in dialogue with a leather and eagle-feather mask and war bonnet called Resilience by Osceola Red Shirt (Oglala Lakota, b. 1976) and Genevieve Red Shirt (Rosebud Sioux, Chickasaw, Taíno, b. 1978). The Migratory Bird Treaty Act now protects more than 1,000 species of migratory birds; this same federal policy also curbs Indigenous cultural practice, as exemplified by the use of hand-painted imitation golden eagle feathers in the making of the war bonnet.

A section of the exhibition also showcases rarely seen early photographs from New-York Historical’s renowned Patricia D. Klingenstein Library which suggest what Seneca Village—the once-thriving Black and immigrant community in Manhattan that was seized through eminent domain and destroyed to create the city’s world-famous Central Park—might have looked like.

“The environmental crisis is also a civil rights crisis,” said curator Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto. “Nature, Crisis, Consequence tells the story of industry and deforestation, but also of the people breathing polluted air and the communities losing the land upon which their cultures depend. I hope it provides visitors with a new way of understanding the climate crisis and the role art can play in leading us toward climate justice.”