Celebrating Earth Day and its Powerfully Conscientious Art

Celebrating the environment and raising awareness of the battle to protect Earth’s natural resources, more than one billion citizens participate annually in Earth Day on 22 April – and it’s the power of art that carries this important ecological message around the world.

Spearheaded by Robert Rauschenberg, who designed the first Earth Day poster, the creativity of Earth Day art has not only put the future of the planet at the front of people’s minds worldwide, but done so with the help of many world famous artists, who utilized myriad styles and even the earth itself as a natural canvas to convey vibrant compositions that speak to the heart as well as the head.

In 2023 the theme for Earth Day is Invest in Our Planet and will focus on engaging governments, institutions, and businesses. Inspired into action by a massive oil spill off the coast of southern California in 1969, it was Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who dreamt up the idea of the first annual Earth Day back in April 1970.

In a move that seems unlikely today, he drew together Democratic and Republican leaders for what Nelson termed a “national teach-in” to bring public awareness to the threat of global air and water pollution. And what started as a grass-roots movement blossomed into a nationwide collective with 20 million Americans initially participating, before it grew into the worldwide environmental behemoth today that is observed in nearly 200 countries globally.

Not only has it promoted awareness across the globe, but on Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the US, UK and 120 other countries. This helped bring about the historic draft climate protection treaty, which was adopted by the 195 nations at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Then on Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people worldwide observed the 50th anniversary in what is believed to be one of the largest online mass mobilizations in history.

Behind each of these campaigns was art the furthered the cause, encapsulated ideas, and inspired people into action. For a campaign of such of global magnitude, the pioneering American painter and graphic artist, Robert Rauschenberg designed the first Earth Day poster, with 10,300 printed by Castelli Graphics, not only inspiring future generations of green activists, but also paving the way for environmentally conscious art with the power to help change the world.

Robert Rauschenberg

Not only did Robert Rauschenberg create the poster for the first Earth Day in 1970, but he would go onto create a further nine artworks to support to global green movement. Believing strongly in the power of art as a catalyst for social change, Rauschenberg even established The Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange in 1984 to enhance cultural understanding through artistic expression.

His poster design for the inaugural Earth Day utilized the bald eagle as the dominant image, which emblematically places the United States at the center of a global problem. The painting’s tone is muted and muddy to highlight environmental decay, which surrounds the symbolic eagle. It was one of many he would create to raise funds for the many social causes that were important to him and he returned to support Earth Day on its 20th anniversary in 1990, with a print produced in a limited edition of 75 that once again brought the environmental movement to international attention.

The print has proved popular at auction as a gateway to Rauschenberg’s art, which attracts a considerably greater price when it goes under the hammer, as demonstrated in 2019 when Christie’s sold Buffalo II (1964) for $88.8 million, shattering the artist’s previous record.

Browse work by Robert Rauschenberg coming to auction

Paul Jenkins

Created to celebrate the second Earth Day in 1971, the lithograph by American painter Paul Jenkins, used his trademark bold rainbow array of colors in a strong abstract expressionist form to help further the cause of the emerging green movement.

Originally released in a run of 300 prints, Jenkins was a noted action painter who produced many of his vibrant compositions by pouring paint directly onto the canvas. He would then allow the paint to drip, run, and bleed, before adding a translucent wash to give the appearance of a ceramic glaze in a technique that owes a debt to Jackson Pollack, while his palettes evoke fellow abstract titan Helen Frankenthaler.

Browse work by Paul Jenkins coming to auction

Edna Andrade

Welcoming a broad array of artistic styles to reflect the diversity of nature, the queen of early op art, Edna Andrade, put her typical hard-edged style into practise with this scarce lithograph for the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970.

Hand-numbered in a limited run of 200 prints, the poster proved popular when it appeared at auction in April 2022. Andrade once commented “how little it takes to upset the eye” and her restrained and reductive yet powerfully emblematic approach is evident in her Earth Day print, as part of a style that would influence countless painters, including Bridget Riley, Gabriele Evertz, and Robert Swain. Not only an ecologically-slanted artist, Andrade worked as a WWII propaganda artist and for a variety of other social and environmental causes.

Browse work by Edna Andrade coming to auction

Peter Max

One of the most successful and prolific pop artists in history, Peter Max was also an ardent environmentalist since the 1960s and brought his bright, bold, and colorful palate to the aid of Earth Day in 1992. Serving as a colorful reminder to love our planet, the artwork features cosmic people flying through the air, a boat on tranquil water, and mountains that give way to a beaming sun.

Max has form as a social activist and counter-culture icon, as in 1967 he designed flyers for the second ever Be In political gathering of hippies in New York’s Central Park and has donated $180,000 worth of his art to benefit the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Browse work by Peter Max coming to auction

Robert Smithson

The canvas isn’t the only medium that people have used to express environmental concerns and inspire others into action. The earth itself has also been utilized in inspiring land pieces that often carry direct messages of environmentalism, exemplified by Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970).

The artwork splayed out in nature is both dramatic and carries an environmental message thanks to its location. Measuring 1,500-foot-long by 15-foot-wide, the spiral of local basalt rocks and mud forms a jetty on the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which he deliberately chose due to its proximity to a derelict oil jetty where oil and gas extraction has threatened the area, making its permanent placement a poignant reminder in the fight for a greener future.

Browse work by Robert Smithson coming to auction

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Sources: Earth Day | National Geographic | Vogue | Rauschenberg Foundation | Wikipedia | Web Archive | Ro Gallery | Peter Max