An introduction to the roles played by ecology and the environment in the modern and contemporary art of Europe and North America. The course will consider such concepts as landscape, nature, ecology, wilderness, civilization, and even the human being as they have been constructed in modern Western culture. Looking closely at paintings, photographs, sculptures, films, and songs, students will learn a variety of approaches to conceiving and representing the natural world and the human relationship to all things nonhuman. Particular emphasis is placed on climate change and on learning how art might help build the belief structures necessary to achieve sustainability.