“In this ambitious, unfinished embroidery, Mildred Johnstone depicts a vibrant American landscape shaped by industry. Her composition features highways, airfields, oil refineries, and the New York City skyline, emphasizing Bethlehem Steel’s role in building these modern landmarks.

Johnstone lived in Bethlehem, PA, during the company’s boom years with her second husband, a Bethlehem Steel executive. After a 1948 tour of the plant, she was inspired to begin a series of inventive embroideries. For instance, she reimagined Bethlehem Steel as an Industrial Doll House (1949) and herself as A Bride in a Blast Furnace (1950). She had completed at least 14 works on this subject by the time she started Landscape of Steel in 1957, a project she would work on intermittently for the rest of her career.

Johnstone brings depth and complexity to this national portrait, tempering its imagery of industrial achievement with text that advises the country to learn from adversity. She also alludes to personal sorrows, stitching a wolf near the word “crises” to symbolize the loss of her infant son, who was killed by a wolf in 1927.

Embroidery helped Johnstone make sense of the world. She writes of its “”feminine logic,”” and how it enabled her to examine her “”personal landscape of steel detachedly, and fall into its mysterious myth.”” In a letter to her longtime collaborator, artist Joseph Cantieni, she wrote that “”the Landscape of Steel keeps becoming more important”” and suggests that the “”hand-of-God”” (upper right) may be “”weaving a more logical design.”” Her letter also discusses the need for “”the long view,”” both in this work’s design and as a perspective on life. Johnstone’s contemplative approach to Landscape of Steel looks beyond the nationalist narratives of her day, acknowledging both the challenges and the beauty she saw in America.”