Minnesota Landscape Rocks

The idea that other regions of the country contain more grandiose beauty per acre than does Minnesota is hardly to be disputed [Good Intentions, October], but the sublime vision lauded in the review of the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s show is also distorted and pretentious. As a landscape artist who’s chosen to live here precisely because the beauty of the upper Mississippi takes a little more soulful inspection and reflection than does the Grand Canyon, I’d remind everyone that nature’s beauty is universal. The subtle Taoist plain can be as thrilling as a ruined mountain top. Not only has Minnesota inspired its own bouquet of native impressionists like Alex Fournier and Seth Eastman, natural realists, but the work of our contemporary painter Mike Lynch stands beside the finest work anywhere in the nation. Like unseen poetry, there’s always an aesthetic pay-off if you’re calm enough to really appreciate it.

Michael McKenzie, Minneapolis