Beach Landscapes

“The beach is a good place to try to understand the way we are, the way we behave,” photographer Massimo Vitali once explained. Since the beginning of art history, artists have been drawn to the subject of bathers, depicting the leisure—and at times eroticism—of time spent basking in the heat. From Roy Lichtenstein’s prints of mermaids to Hiroshi Sugimoto’s long-exposure photographs of tranquil seas, discover ocean landscapes that embody the spirit of a day at the beach.