Organized by the Museum of the American West, Autry National Center, in Los Angeles, the exhibition looks at Yosemite's changing visual identity and cultural role as a national and international destination, and the response by artists to its transition from an ideal of wilderness to a commercial and often congested venue.

The comprehensive exhibition spans artwork from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, more than 150 paintings, baskets, and photographs. Arranged in four chronological sections, Yosemite: Art of an American Icon examines Yosemite's ongoing relevance as a contemporary Western landscape and American icon.

1855-1890: Nature's Cathedral. Propelled by a spirit of discovery, America's long search for cultural prowess refocused on the West. Urged by writers, critics, and intellectuals to become directly involved with nature, artists sought out Yosemite, portraying it as a bastion of pristine wilderness and evidence of America's divine providence.

This section includes a selection of early baskets, mammoth-plate photographs by Carleton Watkins and Eadweard J. Muybridge, and grand landscape paintings by Albert Bierstadt, William Keith, and Thomas Hill, documenting the presence of native people in Yosemite as central to its early identity as an exotic and distinctly Western destination.

1890-1916: The People's Playground. As the 1890 census declared the close of the American frontier, Yosemite achieved national park status and made its official transition from remote locale to popular resort. With the opening of the Yosemite Valley Railroad in 1905, the park became widely accessible.

This section, with photos by Isaiah Taber, George Fiske, and others that show visitors frolicking on overhanging rocks, explores the impact of tourism, from changing ideas regarding conservation to the invention of Indian Field Days and the transformation of basket weaving from utilitarian to a major art form. The failed efforts of William Keith and John Muir to save the Hetch-Hetchy Valley from
becoming a reservoir signaled the end of Yosemite as a scenic preserve and its future as a tourist mecca.

1917-1969: An Icon Comes of Age. Thanks to America's newfound love of the auto, Yosemite visitation doubled between 1915 and 1919 as the mood of its patrons shifted from exclusivity to development and the needs of the masses. From impressionists Maurice Braun and Colin Campbell Cooper to the pictorialists Alvin Langdon Coburn, William Dassonville, and Anne Brigman, Yosemite artists shaped a fresh identity for the park as an aesthetically stylish venue.

Ansel Adams created the iconic photos that soon dominated the public's imagination. As Yosemite's audience widened, the relationship between the park and its artists also became a more intimate one, as modernists from Edward Weston to Charles Sheeler explored its abstract potential.

1970-Present: Revisiting Yosemite. After a decade of social revolt, Yosemite faces overcrowding, uncertainty, and unrest. Yosemite artists, focusing on a landscape long removed from its frontier roots, now deal with a place of contradictions, where urban development abuts raw nature. Photographers Roger Minick, Ted Orland, Thomas Struth, John Divola, Richard Misrach, and others have looked past the romantic legacy of Adams. Major artists Wayne Thiebaud and David Hockney have also cast Yosemite in a modern light.

Beginning in the 1980s, painting returned with vigor. The diverse approaches from Greg Kondos, Wolf Kahn, Jane Culp, and Tony Foster close the exhibition on an optimistic note, looking to the future of the park through the eyes of its artists past and present. -- www.museumca.org