The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy

In his extraordinary work, the Oregon painter Michael Brophy explores the intersections of history, forest ecology, and the rich tradition of landscape painting. Through images that depict the brutal and savage beauty of the altered landscapes of the Northwest's rivers, forests, and mountains, he engages the social and political forces reshaping national dialogues that define environmental preservation and sustainability. Brophy's art reassesses the historical events and decisions that shaped the West. Focusing on the impact of the past on the present, Brophy sees this historic legacy as crucial to understanding the contemporary world and as a guide to shaping the future. Brophy's paintings are not simple, moral lessons. Rather, this art offers a lens to rethink easily held assumptions about the environment and the history of the American West. Brophy's scenes of deforestation and economic progress serve to illuminate the complexities, contradictions, and irony of long-standing environmental policies and the American relationship with the Western landscape.