Art Is… Decolonizing Landscape Painting

Artists Richard Mayhew, Rodney McMillian, and Julie Mehretu discuss the ways they use abstraction to confront the colonial history and narratives reflected in traditional Western landscape art. They consider how, in McMillian’s words, a landscape is much more than just a “pastoral scene.” Editor’s note: The original title of this video, “Art Is… Decolonizing Landscape,” has been amended to better reflect the content after a thoughtful comment by a YouTube community member. While SFMOMA is in the process of adopting an institution-wide land acknowledgment, we encourage audiences to view this film commissioned for our platform Open Space: . Updates on the museum’s ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion work can be found here: http://sfmoma.me/3a46wzO