Land art

Land art, earthworks (coined by Robert Smithson), or Earth art is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked.

Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005

Quotes

• For my generation, Judd posed the same problem as Picasso did for the Abstract Expressionists; you either had to go over, under, around, or through him. Conceptual, process, and Earth Art, each in their own way, constituted a rejection of the ‘specific object'.
  • Mel Bochner (2005, p. 70) in: David Raskin. Donald Judd. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

• My work comes first, reasons for it follow.
  • Andy Goldsworthy "Residency on Earth" in Art in America (April, 1995)

• Just as the development of earth art and installation art stemmed from the idea of taking art out of the galleries, the basis of my involvement with public art is a continuation of wall drawings. As soon as one does work on walls, the idea of using the whole wall follows. It means that the art is intimately involved with the architecture. It is available to be seen by everyone. It avoids the preciousness of gallery or museum installations. Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa.
  • Sol LeWitt, Sol LeWitt by Saul Ostrow, art interview in:Bomb Magazine, Fall 2003.

• A sculpture, a map, a photograph; all the forms of my work are equal and complementary. The knowledge of my actions, in whatever form, is the art. My art is the essence of my experience, not a representation of it.
  • Richard Long in: Richard Long: Books, Prints, Printed Matter. Exhib cat New York Public Library, New York 1994

• Art happens all the time, everywhere. All we have to do is to keep our minds open.
  • Jacek Tylicki, in "Les Krantz," The New York Art Review, 1988.

• Nature is never finished.
  • Robert Smithson "Cultural Confinement," in: Artforum, 1972

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Land art on Wikipedia
• Media related to Land art on Wikimedia Commons