Red Rocks 2016

Rose Freymuth-Frazier painted these "Red Rocks" in 2010, but the artwork is in the tradition of the American sublime. The sublime was a popular aesthetic in the 19th century. Rather than celebrating civilization, it found artistic inspiration in landscapes perceived as wild, overwhelming, or dangerous. This was a reaction against the industrial revolution, and it valorized geographical features such as mountains, deserts, and canyons as places where the human spirit could be renewed. It influenced many artists in the United States, who identified these landscapes with the idea of the frontier and Manifest Destiny. Freymuth-Frazier’s painting shows how these ideas have persisted in American culture. To understand them fully, we can research the history of sublime landscape painting and its influence on US cultural identity. We can reflect on the power of art to shape our relationship to nature.