Land art: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|AArt formmovement of artthe creation1960s and 1970s}}

[[File:Timelandscapeweb.jpg|thumb|''[[Time Landscape]]'' by [[Alan Sonfist]], at LaGuardia and Houston Streets in Manhattan, 1965-present]]

'''Land art''', variously known as '''Earth art''', '''environmental art''', and '''Earthworks''', is an [[art movement]] that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/l/land-art|title=Land art – Art Term|website=Tate}}</ref> largely associated with [[Great Britain]] and the [[United States]]<ref name="Kastner">{{Cite book |last=Kastner |first=Jeffrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rolepDS3dMC&q=%22land+art%22 |title=Land and Environmental Art|first=Jeffrey|last=Kastner |date=June 23, 2010 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=9780714856438 |pages=14 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Dempsey">Art in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & movements. Abrams, 2002. (U.S. edition of Styles, Schools and Movements, by Amy Dempsey) {{ISBN|978-0810941724}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement-earth-art.htm|title=Earth Art Movement Overview|website=The Art Story}}</ref> but that also includes examples from many countries. As a trend, "land art" expanded boundaries of art by the materials used and the siting of the works. The materials used were often the materials of the Earth, including the soil, rocks, vegetation, and water found on-site, and the sites of the works were often distant from population centers. Though sometimes fairly inaccessible, photo documentation was commonly brought back to the urban art gallery.<ref name="Dempsey" /><ref>[http://mymodernmet.com/andy-goldsworthy-land-art/ http://mymodernmet.com] Unexpected Land Art Beautifully Formed in Nature.</ref><ref name="la">[http://www.land-arts.com/Land_art.html http://www.land-arts.com] Land art.</ref>

[[File:You Yangs Bunjil geoglyph crop.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|''Bunjil'', a geoglyph at the [[You Yangs]], [[Lara, Australia]], by Andrew Rogers. The creature has a wing span of 100 metres and 1500 tonnes of rock were used to construct it.]]

[[File:Roden.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Satellite view of ''[[Roden Crater]]'', the site of an Earthwork in progress by [[James Turrell]], outside [[Flagstaff, Arizona]]]]

[[File:Eberhard Bosslet Intervention Begleiterscheinung XI Era Lanzarote 2008.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''Side Effect XI'', by [[Eberhard Bosslet]], side effect X[[Tias, Las Palmas|Tias]], Lanzarote, (2008)]]

[[File:Cretto di Burri - Gibellina.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[AlbertoCretto di Burri|Grande Cretto]]'', Grandeby Cretto[[Alberto Burri]], [[Gibellina]], (1984-19891984–1989)]]

[[File:Charles Ross StarAxis.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[Star Axis]]'', looking north toward the entrance to the Star Tunnel,: byBy [[Charles Ross (artist)|Charles Ross]], New Mexico, (1971–in progress)]]

InThe art form gained traction in the 1960s and 1970s as land art protestedwas not something that could easily be turned into a commodity, unlike the "ruthlessmass commercializationproduced cultural debris" of artthe in [[United States|America]]time.{{citation<ref needed|datename=January"Kastner" 2019}}/> During this period, exponentsproponents of land art rejected the [[museum]] or [[Art museum|gallery]] as the setting of artistic activity and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of traditional transportable [[sculpture]] and the commercial art market, although photographic documentation was often presented in normal gallery spaces. Land art was inspired by [[Minimalism (visual arts)|minimal art]] and [[conceptual art]] but also by modern movements such as [[De Stijl]], [[Cubism]], [[minimalism]] and the work of [[Constantin Brâncuși]] and [[Joseph Beuys]].<ref Manyname="Weilacher"/> One of the artistsfirst associatedearthworks withartists land art had been involved with minimal art andwas [[conceptualHerbert artBayer]]., [[Isamuwho Noguchi]]'s 1941 design forcreated ''ContouredGrass Playground''Mound in [[New YorkAspen, CityColorado]] is sometimes interpreted as an important early piece of land art even though the artist himself never called his work "land art" but simply "sculpture". His influence on contemporary land art, [[landscape architecture]] and [[environmental sculpture]] is evident in many works today1955.<ref name="Weilacher">Udo{{Cite Weilacher,web ''Between|title=Grass LandscapeMound Architecture{{!}} andAspenModern Land Art''|url=http://www.aspenmod.com/places/grass-mound/ Birkhäuser, 1999, Basel Berlin Boston 1999 {{ISBN|3access-7643date=2024-611905-04 |language=en-0US}}</ref><ref name="Kastner" />

Many of the artists associated with land art had been involved with minimal art and [[conceptual art]]. [[Isamu Noguchi]]'s 1941 design for ''Contoured Playground'' in [[New York City]] is sometimes interpreted as an important early piece of land art even though the artist himself never called his work "land art" but simply "sculpture". His influence on contemporary land art, [[landscape architecture]] and [[environmental sculpture]] is evident in many works today.<ref name="Weilacher">Udo Weilacher, ''Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art''. Birkhäuser, 1999, Basel Berlin Boston 1999 {{ISBN|3-7643-6119-0}}</ref>

[[Alan Sonfist]] used an alternative approach to working with [[nature]] and [[culture]] by bringing historical nature and [[sustainable art]] back into New York City. His most inspirational work is ''Time Landscape'', an indigenous forest he planted in New York City.<ref name="Weilacher" /> He also created several other ''Time Landscapes'' around the world such as ''Circles of Time'' in [[Florence, Italy]] documenting the historical usage of the land, and recently at the [[deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum]] outside Boston. According to critic [[Barbara Rose]], writing in ''[[Artforum]]'' in 1969, he had become disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery bound art. In 1967, the [[art critic]] [[Grace Glueck]] writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'' declared the first Earthwork to be done by Douglas Leichter and Richard Saba at the [[Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture]].<ref name="nyt-1967">{{cite news |last1=Glueck |first1=Grace |title=Roland Penrose, Picasso Persuader |url=https://nyti.ms/2PMrxJ6 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=15 October 1967}}</ref> The sudden appearance of land art in 1968 can be located as a response by a generation of artists mostly in their late twenties to the heightened political activism of the year and the emerging [[Natural environment|environmental]] and [[women's liberation]] [[Social movement|movement]]s.

Perhaps the best known artist who worked in this genre was [[Robert Smithson]] whose 1968 essay "The Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects" provided a critical framework for the movement as a reaction to the disengagement of [[Modernism]] from social issues as represented by the critic [[Clement Greenberg]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QTq8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22land+art%22%2C+%22Clement+Greenberg%22%2C+smithson&pg=PA142 Francis Frascina, ''Art, Politics and Dissent: Aspects of the Art Left in Sixties America''], Manchester University Press, 1999, p. 142, {{ISBN|0719044693}}</ref> His best known piece, and probably the most famous piece of all land art, is the ''[[Spiral Jetty]]'' (1970), for which Smithson arranged rock, earth and [[algae]] so as to form a long (1500&nbsp;ft) spiral-shape [[jetty]] protruding into [[Great Salt Lake]] in northern [[Utah]], [[United States|U.S.]] How much of the work, if any, is visible is dependent on the fluctuating water levels. Since its creation, the work has been completely covered, and then uncovered again, by water. A steward of the artwork in conjunction with the Dia Foundation,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://umfa.utah.edu/land_art_jetty_partnership|title=UMFA: Utah Museum of Fine Arts|first=Utah Museum of Fine|last=Arts|access-date=2016-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018010058/http://umfa.utah.edu/land_art_jetty_partnership|archive-date=2016-10-18|url-status=dead}}</ref> the [[Utah Museum of Fine Arts]] regularly curates programming around the Spiral Jetty, including a "Family Backpacks" program.<ref>"[http://umfa.utah.edu/backpacks Family Backpacks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018010115/http://umfa.utah.edu/backpacks |date=2016-10-18 }}". Utah Museum of Fine Arts. umfa.utah.org. July&nbsp;30, 2017.</ref>

Smithson's ''Gravel Mirror with Cracks and Dust'' (1968) is an example of land art existing in a [[art gallery|gallery]] space rather than in the natural environment. It consists of a pile of gravel by the side of a partially mirrored gallery wall. In its simplicity of form and concentration on the materials themselves, this and other pieces of land art have an affinity with [[minimalism]]. There is also a relationship to [[Arte Povera]] in the use of materials traditionally considered "unartistic" or "worthless". The Italian [[Germano Celant]], founder of Arte Povera, was one of the first curators to promote land art.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://obsart.blogspot.fr/2012/05/conceptual-art-arte-povera-land-art-it.html|title=Observatoire du Land Art|date=24 May 2012 |publisher=obsart.blogspot.fr|access-date=June 2, 2012}}</ref>

"Land artists" have tended to be American,<ref name="Kastner" /> with other prominent artists in this field being [[Carl Andre]], [[Alice Aycock]], [[Walter De Maria]], [[Hans Haacke]], [[Michael Heizer]], [[Nancy Holt]], [[Peter Hutchinson (artist)|Peter Hutchinson]], [[Ana Mendieta]], [[Dennis Oppenheim]], [[Andrew Rogers (sculptor)|Andrew Rogers]], [[Charles Ross (artist)|Charles Ross]], [[Alan Sonfist]], and [[James Turrell]]. Turrell began work in 1972 on possibly the largest piece of land art thus far, reshaping the earth surrounding the extinct [[Roden Crater]] [[volcano]] in [[Arizona]]. Perhaps the most prominent non-American land artists are the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Chris Drury (artist)|Chris Drury]], [[Andy Goldsworthy]], [[Richard Long (artist)|Richard Long]] and the Australian [[Andrew Rogers (sculptor)|Andrew Rogers]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.daringdesignsseeleyart.com/earthworks.htm|title=Monumental Land Art of the United States|publisher=daringdesignsseeleyart.com|access-date=August 2722, 20102023}}</ref>

Land artists in America relied mostly on wealthy [[patron]]s and [[private foundation]]s to fund their often costly projects. With the sudden economic downturn of the mid-1970s, funds from these sources largely stopped. With the death of Robert Smithson in a plane crash in 1973, the movement lost one of its most important figureheads and faded out. Charles Ross continues to work on the ''[[Star Axis]]'' project, which he began in 1971.<ref name="Hass18">Hass, Nancy. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/t-magazine/longterm-art-projects.html "What Happens When a Single Art Project Becomes a Decades-Long Obsession?,"] ''The New York Times'', September 18, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2022.</ref><ref name="BQ21">Beachy-Quick, Dan. [https://www.artforum.com/slant/dan-beachy-quick-on-charles-ross-s-star-axis-87061 "Cosmic Dancer: Dan Beachy-Quick on Charles Ross’s Star Axis,"] ''Artforum'', October 28, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2022.</ref> Michael Heizer in 2022 completed his work on ''[[City (artwork)|City]]'', and James Turrell continues to work on the ''[[Roden Crater]]'' project. In most respects, "land art" has become part of mainstream [[public art]] and in many cases the term "land art" is misused to label any kind of art in nature even though conceptually not related to the [[avant-garde]] works by the pioneers of land art.

* [[Alberto Burri]] (1915-19951915–1995)

* [[Christo and Jeanne Claude]] Christo (1935-20201935–2020) Jeanne (1935-20091935–2009)

* [[Walter De Maria]] (1935-20131935–2013)

* [[Harvey Fite]] (1903-19761903–1976)

* [[Barry Flanagan]] (1941-20091941–2009)

* [[NancyStan HoltHerd]] (1938-2014born 1950)

* [[Robert Morris (artist)|Robert Morris]] (1931-20181931–2018)

* [[Dennis Oppenheim]] (1938-20111938–2011)

* [[Beverly Pepper]] (1922-20201922–2020)

* [[Nobuo Sekine]] (1942-20191942–2019)

* [[Robert Smithson]] (1938-19731938–1973)