This article focuses on the analysis of artistic works created in different countries and reflecting the ideas of destruction brought on by the advancements of industrial civilization and technological revolution, as well as an ecological catastrophe that is the impending doom of humanity. The study concludes that artists from different countries, regardless of their cultural background, strive to express their ideas through the universal language that can be understood in every corner of the globe. The strength of visual metaphors helps get across the deep tragedy of global ecological art: imagery of suffering, dying, hopelessness and despair is meant to visualize the catastrophic scale and consequences of the unfolding ecological crisis. This study is expected to clarify significant theoretical issues related to the phenomenon of ecological art. The study expands the conceptual base for further research on the theory and history of ecological art.
“A. Sekula”. Garage. Available online at
https://garagemca.org/exhibition/the-coming-world-ecology-as-the-new-politics-2030-2100/tour/allan-sekula Accessed on 28.08.2024.
“Alexis Rockman. Rubicon”. Speronewestwater. Available online at
https://www.speronewestwater.com/exhibitions/alexis-rockman2 Accessed on 29.08.2024.
Anderson, K. (2015) “Ethics, ecology, and the future: art and design face the Anthropocene”. Leonardo 48, 4, 338–347.
https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01087
Bei, Cun (1994) Guī xiāng zhě. [The one who came back home.] Běijīng [Beijing]: Zuòjiā chūbǎn shè [“The Writer” Publishing House].
Běicūn (1994). Běijīng:.
Brady, E. (2014) “Aesthetic value, ethics and climate change”. Environmental Values 23, 5, 551–570.
https://doi.org/10.3197/096327114X13947900181112
Brown, A. (2014) Art & ecology now. London: Thames & Hudson.
Carlson, A. (1976) “Environmental aesthetics and the dilemma of aesthetic education”. Journal of Aesthetic Education 10, 2, 69–82.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3331917
Carlson, A. (2017) “The Relationship between Eastern ecoaesthetics and Western environmental aesthetics”. Philosophy East and West67, 1, 117–139.
https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2017.0009
Cembalest, R. (1991) “The ecological art e-xplosion”. ARTnews 90, 6, 96–105.
Crouch, D. (2015) “An ecology of values: critically interpreting John Newling’s art”. Cultural Geographies in Practice 22, 2, 361–368.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474014539913
Dunaway, F. (2009) “Seeing global warming: contemporary art and the fate of the planet”. Environ-mental History 14, 1, 9–31.
https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/14.1.9
Foster, C. (1998) “The narrative and the ambient in environmental aesthetics”. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56, 2, 127–137.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1540_6245.jaac56.2.0127
Godlovitch, S. (1998) “Some theoretical aspects of environmental aesthetics”. Journal of Aesthetic Education 32, 4, 17–26.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3333380
Gossin, P. (2015) “Animated nature: aesthetics, ethics, and empathy in Miyazaki Hayao’s ecophilosophy”. Mechademia: Second Arc 10, 209–234.
https://doi.org/10.5749/mech.10.2015.0209
Holmes, R. (2002) “From beauty to duty: aesthetics of nature and environmental ethics”. In A. Berleant, ed. Environment and the arts: perspectives on environmental aesthetics, 127–141. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Kauppinen, H. (1990) “Environmental aesthetics and art education”. Art Education 43, 4, 12–21.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3193211
Kirksey, S. E. (2012) “Thneeds Reseeds: figures of biocultural hope in the Anthropocene”. RCC Perspectives 9, 89–94.
Koh, J. (1988) “An ecological aesthetic”. Landscape Journal 7, 2, 177–191.
https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.7.2.177
Machotka, E. (2018) “Consuming eco-art: Satoyama at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2012”. In E. Machotka and K. J. Cwiertka, eds. Consuming life in post-bubble Japan: a transdisciplinary perspective, 215–236. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048530021-014
Masco, J. (2017) “The six extinctions: visualizing planetary ecological crisis today”. Environmental Philosophy 14, 1, 11–40.
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil201611741
Matless, D. and R. George (1995) “A solo ecology: the erratic art of Andy Goldsworthy”. Ecumene 2, 4, 423–448.
https://doi.org/10.1177/147447409500200404
Meeker, J. W. (1974) Ecological aesthetics. In the comedy of survival: study in literary ecology. New York: Scribner’s Sons.
Mengyao, Liu (2017) “Experiments in the Anthropocene: toward a transformative eco-aesthetic in the work of four contemporary Chinese visual artists”. Localities 7, 75–114.
https://doi.org/10.15299/local.2017.11.7.75
O’Brien, P. (1991) “Art and ecology: a new orthodoxy”. Circa 60, 18–25.
https://doi.org/10.2307/25557674
Roe, E. and M. Buser (2016) “Becoming ecological citizens: connecting people through performance art, food matter and practices”. Cultural Geographies 23, 4, 581–598.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474015624243
Sanders, P. B. (1992) “Eco-art: strength in diversity”. Art Journal 51, 2, 77–81.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1992.10791571
Simus, J. B. (2008) “Aesthetic implications of the new paradigm in ecology”. Journal of Aesthetic Education 42, 1, 63–79.
https://doi.org/10.1353/jae.2008.0004
Smith, W. G. (1990) “An aesthetic of ecology”. Landscape Architecture 80, 6, 10–10.
Stoilas, H. (2020) “‘It’s the end of civilisation’: Alexis Rockman on his new watercolour series created during lockdown”. The Art Newspaper, 3.07. Available online at
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/07/03/its-the-end-of-civilisation-alexis-rockman-on-his-new-watercolour-series-created-during-lockdown Accessed on 25.08.2024.
Vesna, V. (2006) “Mel Chin: provocative eco-art in action”. Art Journal 65, 1, 63–64.
https://doi.org/10.2307/20068443
Weintraub, L. (2012) To Life!: Eco art in pursuit of a sustainable planet. California: University of California Press.
https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520424500
