FACTOID # 116: More than a third of the world's airports are in the United States of America.
 
 Home   Encyclopedia   Statistics   Countries A-Z   Flags   Maps   Education   Forum   FAQ   About 
 
WHAT'S NEW
RECENT ARTICLES
More Recent Articles »
 

SEARCH ALL

FACTS & STATISTICS    Advanced view

Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 

 

(* = Graphable)

 

 


Encyclopedia > Land art
The Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005.
The Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005.

Land Art, Earthworks or Earth Art is an art movement which emerged in America in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather the landscape is the very means of their creation. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away from civilization, left to change and erosion under natural conditions. Many of the first works, created in the deserts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah or Arizona were ephemeral in nature and now only exist as video recordings or photographic documents. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005. ... Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005. ... Spiral Jetty, as seen from Rozel Point Spiral Jetty, considered to be the masterpiece of American sculptor Robert Smithson, is the name of an earthwork sculpture built in 1970. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion (morphology). ... An ephemeral river is one in which lasts only a few days. ... Photography [fәtɑgrәfi:],[foʊtɑgrәfi:] is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or electronic sensor. ...

Contents

History

Land Art is to be understood as a protest against the artificiality, plastic aesthetics and ruthless commercialisation of art at the end of the 1960s in America. Exponents of Land Art rejected the museum as the setting of artistic activity and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of the commercial art market. Land Art was inspired by Minimal Art and Concept art but also by modern and minimal movements such as De Stijl, Cubism, Minimalism and the work of Constantin Brancusi and Joseph Beuys. Many of the artist associated with "Land Art" had been involved with Minimal Art and Conceptual Art. Isamu Noguchi's 1941 design for Contoured Playground in New York 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. The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in movies, video games, or comic books before it is put into the final product. ... De Stijl redirects here. ... Le guitariste by Pablo Picasso, 1910 Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas by Juan Gris Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919, oil on canvas by Juan Gris Cubist villa in Prague, Czech Republic Cubist House of the Black Madonna... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... Constantin Brancusi Constantin Brancusi (February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957, originally Constantin Brâncuşi IPA: ), was a Romanian sculptor, born in Hobiţa, Gorj, near Târgu Jiu, where he placed his sculptural ensemble with The Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss and The Endless Column. ... Joseph Beuys (IPA: ; May 12, 1921 – January 23, 1986) was an influential German artist who came to prominence in the 1960s. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs (1965) Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. ... Isamu Noguchi , November 17, 1904 - December 30, 1988) was a prominent Japanese -American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. ... Central Park, like all parks, is an example of landscape architecture. ... The term environmental sculpture is variously defined. ...


Alan Sonfist is a pioneer of an alternative approach to working with nature and culture that he began in 1965 by bringing historical nature back into New York City. According to the critic Barbara Rose writing in 'Artforum' in 1969 she herself had become disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery bound art. 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 environmental and women's liberation movements. Alan Sonfist is New York City based artist most often associated with the Land or Earth Art movement. ... Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. ...


The movement was 'launched' in October 1968 by the group exhibition 'Earthworks' at the Dwan Gallery in New York. In February, 1969, Willoughby Sharp curated the historic "Earth Art" exhibition at the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca New York. The artists included in the "Earth Art" exhibition were: Walter De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Hans Haacke, Michael Heizer, Neil Jenney, Richard Long, David Medalla, Robert Morris, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, and Gunther Uecker. Gordon Matta-Clark, who lived in Ithaca at the time, was invited by Willoughby Sharp to help the artists in "Earth Art" with the on-site execution of their works for the exhibition. Perhaps the best known artist who worked in this genre was the American 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. His best known piece, and probably the most famous piece of all land art, is Spiral Jetty (1970), for which Smithson arranged rock, earth and algae so as to form a long (1500 feet) spiral-shape jetty protruding into Great Salt Lake in Utah. 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. Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Cornell redirects here. ... Seen/Unseen Known/Unknown at Naoshima, Kagawa prefecture, Japan Walter De Maria is an American sculptor and composer. ... Jan Dibbets was born in 1941 in Weert, the Nederlands. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Michael Heizer is a contemporary artist specializing primarily in large-scale sculptures and earth art (or land art). ... Neil Jenney is a living artist born in 1945. ... Richard Long may be: Richard Long (actor) Richard Long (artist) Richard Long (broadcaster) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... David Medalla is a Filipino international artist, who was born in Manila, the Philippines in 1942. ... Bronze Gate (2005) is a cor-ten steel work by Robert Morris. ... putos ... Smithsons Spiral Jetty set in Great Salt Lake, Utah. ... Günther Uecker photographed by Lothar Wolleh Günther Uecker White Field 1964, painted nails on painted canvasboard, Museum of Modern Art New York City Günther Uecker, also known as Guenther Uecker, is a German sculptor, op artist and installation artist. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Smithsons Spiral Jetty set in Great Salt Lake, Utah. ... For Christian theological modernism, see Liberal Christianity and Modernism (Roman Catholicism). ... Clement Greenberg (January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic closely associated with the abstract art movement in the United States. ... Spiral Jetty, as seen from Rozel Point Spiral Jetty, considered to be the masterpiece of American sculptor Robert Smithson, is the name of an earthwork sculpture built in 1970. ... Algae have conventionally been regarded as simple plants within the study of botany. ... Alternate meanings: See Jetty (web server) Alternate meanings: See Jettying in buildings The term jetty, derived from the French jetie, and therefor signifying something thrown out, is applied to a variety of structures employed in river, dock and maritime works which are generally carried out in pairs from river banks... Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere,[1] the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world,[2] and the 33rd largest lake on Earth. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...


Smithson's Gravel Mirror with Cracks and Dust (1968) is an example of land art existing in a 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... The term Arte Povera (Italian for poor art) was introduced by the Italian art critic and curator, Germano Celant, in 1967. ...

Satellite view of Roden Crater, the site of an earthwork in progress by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
Satellite view of Roden Crater, the site of an earthwork in progress by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona.

Land artists have tended to be American, with other prominent artists in this field including Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, Hans Haacke, Alice Aycock, Dennis Oppenheim, Michael Heizer, 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 British Chris Drury, Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long. Some projects by the artist Christo (who is famous for wrapping monuments, buildings and landscapes in fabric) have also been considered land art by some, though the artist himself considers this incorrect, as explained on his web page. Joseph Beuys' concept of 'social sculpture' influenced 'Land art' and his 'Eichen' project of 1972 to plant 7000 Oak trees has many similarities to 'Land art' processes. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x800, 154 KB) Roden Crater, site of an artwork by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x800, 154 KB) Roden Crater, site of an artwork by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona. ... Seen/Unseen Known/Unknown at Naoshima, Kagawa prefecture, Japan Walter De Maria is an American sculptor and composer. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Alice Aycock (born November 20, 1946) is an American sculptor. ... putos ... Michael Heizer is a contemporary artist specializing primarily in large-scale sculptures and earth art (or land art). ... Alan Sonfist is New York City based artist most often associated with the Land or Earth Art movement. ... Satellite view of Roden Crater, the site of an earthwork in progress by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona. ... Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska photographed from the International Space Station For other uses, see Volcano (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ... Chris Drury (Born 1948, Colombo, Sri Lanka) is a British environmental artist. ... Andy Goldsworthy (born July 26, 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. ... Detail of Riverlines installed in the lobby of the Hearst Tower (New York City) Richard Long (born June 2, 1945) is an English sculptor, photographer and painter, one of the best known British land artists. ... Christo Yavasheff (born June 13, 1935) is an artist popularly known as Christo. ... For other uses, see Textile (disambiguation). ...


Land artists in America relied mostly on wealthy patrons and private foundations to fund their often costly projects. With the sudden economic down turn of the mid 1970s funds from these sources largely dried up. With the death of Robert Smithson in a plane crash in 1973 the movement lost one of its most important figureheads and petered out. 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 avantgarde works by the pioneers of Land Art. The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. ...


Literature

  • Jack Flam (Ed.). Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Berkeley CA 1996 ISBN 0-520-20385-2
  • John Beardsley: Earthworks and Beyond. Contemporary Art in the Landscape. New York 1998 ISBN 0-7892-0296-4
  • Suzaan Boettger, Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the Sixties. University of California Press 2002. ISBN 0-520-24116-9
  • Gilles A. Tiberghien: Land Art. Ed. CarrĂ© 1995
  • Jeffrey Kastner, Brian Wallis: Land and Environmental Art. Boston 1998 ISBN 0-7148-4519-1
  • Udo Weilacher: Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art. Basel Berlin Boston 1999 ISBN 3-7643-6119-0
  • Max Andrews (Ed.): Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. London 2006 ISBN 978-0-901469-57-1
  • Lucy R Lippard: Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory. New York 1983 ISBN 0-394-54812-8
  • Amy Dempsey: Destination Art. Berkeley CA 2006 ISBN 13-978-0-520-25025-3
  • Sonfist, Alan (2004). Nature: The End of Art. Florance, Italy: Gli Ori,Dist. Thames & Hudson, 280p. ISBN 0615125336. 
  • John K. Grande: New York, London. Balance: Art and Nature, Black Rose Books, 1994, 2003 ISBN 1-55164-234-4
  • Edward Lucie-Smith (Intro) and John K. Grande: Art Nature Dialogues: Interviews with Environmental Artists, New York 2004 ISBN 0-7914-6914-7

Udo Weilacher, Prof. ...

Contemporary land artists

Artist Betty Beaumont (born 1946 in Toronto, Canada) lives and works in New York City, New York. ... James Forrest Buchanan (July 1, 1876 - June 15, 1949) was a professional baseball player. ... Harvey Fite (1903-1976) was a pioneering American sculptor, painter and earth artist best known for his monumental land sculpture Opus 40. ... Andy Goldsworthy (born July 26, 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. ... The subject of this article may not satisfy the notability guideline or one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. ... John K. Melvin John K. Melvin (born May 9, 1976 in Oakland, California) is a site-specific conceptual artist and installation artist. ... David Nash (14 November 1945, Esher, Surrey, UK) is a British artist and sculptor. ... John Pfahl (b. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Alan Sonfist is New York City based artist most often associated with the Land or Earth Art movement. ... Jacek Tylicki Born in Sopot, Poland, lives in New York. ... Wela (Elisabeth Wierzbicka) painter and sculptor, was born in Kracow in 1964. ...

Open-air museums and sculpture sites

  • FOAM Finnish Open Air Museum - Finland , [1]
  • International Museum of the open-air Sculpture, "Europos Parkas", Vilnius, Lithuania, [2], [3]
  • Penttilä Open Air Museum POAM - Finland , [4]
  • Le vent de forets - France , [5]
  • OPAM Open Air Museum, Sculpture Park Drechtbanks - Holland , [6]
  • Kemyel Crease Sculpture project, [7]
  • Storm King Art Center - Mountainville, NY , [www.stormking.org]

External links



 

COMMENTARY     


Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here
Your name
Your comments
Please enter the 5-letter protection code

Want to know more?
Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 


Lesson Plans | Student Area | Student FAQ | Reviews | Press Releases |  Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms.