Facing the Elements

Combining historical and contemporary treatments of weather and climate in art, this catalog features masterworks from 1500 through the present day that engage with weather, meteorology, and climate. Facing the Elements unites two exhibitions at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Essays on the four elements, women and weather, peril, and satire reveal changing attitudes following the Scientific Revolution, while interviews with a climate scientist and a psychologist, and an essay on an immersive installation by artists Christa Donner and Andrew S. Yang explore our physical relationshipwith climate today. From personifications to the sense of touch, and from storm-tossed peril to scientific progress, these artworks foreground the human connection to our atmosphere. Plates include unique graphic interventions by Donner and Yang made exclusively for the publication.