This Months 'Art of the Month' is possibly my favourite!
It is about Land Art.
I am a massive fan of the great outdoors. It is fantastic when you spot some art when you are out-and-about. Land Art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs.
Land art was part of the wider conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The most famous land art work is Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty of 1970, an earthwork built out into the Great Salt Lake in the USA.
Though some artists such as Smithson used mechanical earth-moving equipment to make their artworks, other artists made minimal and temporary interventions in the landscape such as Richard Long who simply walked up and down until he had made a mark in the earth.
Land art, which is also known as earth art, is usually documented in artworks using photographs and maps which the artist can exhibit in a gallery. Land artists also make land art in the gallery by bringing in material from the landscape and using it to create installations.
I am particularly interested in Richard Long & David Nash and have seen some of Nashs work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Who is your favourite land artist?