Homo sapiens Sapiens, at some point experienced his maximum , his pick as living being when he received the supreme God's gived ...self aware, fuman consciousness.
First of all, LAND ART is not something new as people tend to describe this category. Is not new at all. The primitive cultures left various forms of artistic expression, they left paintings and symbols or even complex scenes in the caves like Altamira and Lascaux.
Then the next ancient cultures have created large scale representations zoomorphic and anthropomorphic, well known in Britain. Worldwide, the classic ones, which were subject of archaeology survey and research including the American continent: examples include works in Peru by the Nazka Indians, the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio USA, and Inukshuks in Canada, associated with Inuit Cultures.
So, in my view, we have to make the difference between modern LAND ART and art concepts and the ancient ones and create categories of LAND ART. Some of them are minimalist some are very complex and sophisticated.
Do not mention the cropland art. related by the general public with ALIEN ART. Are very popular, mediatized largely. I mention them because are very complex and the geometry is almost perfect. They are immortalized by photographers before to vanish.
THE NAZCA GEOGLIPHS
The Nazca lines are giant drawings in the earth, or geoglyphs, located in the Nazca desert in Peru. They were built by members of an ancient culture that inhabited the area between the 4th and 8th centuries BCE. These lines are made up of hundreds of figures, each drawn with a single line, many in the shape of animals.
Researchers Find New Insight Into Who Drew The Nazca Lines. by Fiona MacDonald: Spoiler: Still not aliens…. Researchers have analyzed 100 recently discovered geoglyphs engraved into the Nazca Desert in southern Peru, as well as nearby shards of ancient ceramics, providing new clues about the creators of the mysterious Nazca Lines.
THE GEOGLYPHES FROM BRITISH ISLES
IN AN AREA THAT INCLUDES an Iron Age hill fort and the place where St. George purportedly slew his allegorical dragon, the Uffington White Horse is perhaps the most remarkable site of all.
The earliest reference to the Uffington White Horse comes from the late 11th century, by which time it was already a well-established geographical feature. Thus, speculation abounded for centuries as to the origin of the chalk-cut hill figure. Some suggested that it was created during the Anglo-Saxon era, either by King Alfred to celebrate his victory over the Danes in 871 or by Hengist, the first Saxon king, whose emblem was a white horse. Others more fancifully imagined that the figure had some connection to nearby Dragon Hill, representing either St. George’s horse or maybe even the legendarily vanquished dragon.
The truth, however, proved to be even more spectacular, as silt dating conducted in 1990 found that the Uffington White Horse was made during the late Bronze Age, making it approximately 3,000 years old — by far the oldest known hill figure in England.
Measuring 360 feet long and 130 feet wide, its size and and flowing, abstract style set it apart from all other white horse geoglyphs (and, on the matter of style, it is notable that similarly stylized representations of horses appear on coins found in the area dating back to the early Iron Age). Given its considerable antiquity and renown, it is likely to have served as an inspiration for these other white horses, including the Westbury White Horse and the Osmington White Horse.
MODERN LAND ART
CONCEPTS
…The ecologist tends to see the landscape in terms of the past, while most industrialists don't see anything at all. The artist must come out of the isolation of galleries and museums and provide a concrete consciousness for the present as it really exists, and not simply present abstractions or utopias…
The essential feature of Land Art is the inseparable link between the work of art and the landscape in which it is placed
Land art is about ‘real-life' and embodies the direct and instinctive relations with the landscape, nature and the environment. It covers the approach of the location and the experience of the observer attaching special importance to the landscape. Land artworks were mainly exhibited with written or photographic documentation.
Land artists also made land art in the gallery by bringing in material from the landscape and using it to create installations.
Land art - Definition Land art is an art movement that emerged in 1960, and this art movement is centered around the rejection of commercialization. It is also known as environmental art, Earthworks, and Earth art.
A term coined by the artist Robert Smithson, is a movement that occurred in the U.S. during the late 1960s and during the 1970s. However, the art form has existed for thousands of years. Land Art is a work of art created and embodied by the physical landscape. The movement sought to take art out of museums and set it within a natural context. Many works of Land Art are temporary or left to change with the elements of nature. The best-known work of contemporary Land Art is Spiral Jetty (1970) which Smithson created as a protrusion into Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Characteristics
A form of contemporary art, known also as Earthworks, or Earth Art, this artistic movement emerged in America during the 1960s when a number of sculptors and painters - such as Robert Smithson (1938-73) - determined to heighten public awareness of Man's relationship with the natural world by intervening in the landscape in a series of thought-provoking constructions.
These (frequently massive) land-based interventions or artworks took a variety of forms, from large-scale land artworks like man-made curtains reaching across vast stretches of landscape, the encirclement of whole islands in coloured fabric, and reshaped waterways and volcanoes, to simple lines of footprints in the earth.
Although the precise meaning of each construction varied, the underlying aim of this novel type of visual art was to create artistic imagery using earth, rocks, soil and other natural material, with a view to increasing our sensibility towards our environment.
Origins and Development of Land Art
Ancient cultures frequently used earthworks to express themselves, long before the "invention" of the term "art". Such land art occurs around the globe, including the American continent: examples include works in Peru by the Nazka Indians, the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio USA, and Inukshuks in Canada, associated with Inuit Cultures.
In modern times, because many of the artists involved in it were also linked with Minimalism and Conceptualism, Earth art has been associated with a number of other art forms, including traditional sculpture, De Stijl, Cubism, Minimalist and Conceptual art, Assemblage and Installation, as well as the work of the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and the basalt-and-oak-saplings project of the avant-gardist Joseph Beuys (1921-86). It was also allegedly influenced by the 1941 design for a Contoured Playground in New York, by the Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-88).
Be this as it may, Land art was also a protest by a number of contemporary artists against the commercial straitjacket imposed by materialistic art galleries and dealers. Ironically, not only were their monumental landscape projects extremely expensive to complete (often requiring land-purchase as well as the use of earth-moving equipment), thus necessitating financial support from the very system that the artists despised, but these works were typically situated in remote places accessible only by the super-rich, and properly viewable only from the air. All of which made this type of large-scale back-to-nature populist art rather elitist, especially since art galleries and museums proved more than adept at exploiting the commercial opportunities offered through photographs and video.
Several land artists turned to smaller or easier projects, offering better opportunities for the creation of environment-based works of art. However, because this form of visual art uses natural materials which decay, wither or melt, many constructions were temporary, necessitating their capture on camera or video. Thus, in the same way as large-scale earthworks, these smaller constructions became (and still are) dependent on the more traditional media of 2-D photography and film. Which does not make them a good example of Conceptual art!
History of Land Art
In 1968, shortly after the publication of Robert Smithson's essay 'The Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects', the 'movement' made its first appearance at an exhibition entitled 'Earthworks' which was held at the Candace Dwan Gallery, New York. Three months later, in early 1969, a major 'Earth Art' exhibition was staged at Cornell University's Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art. Participating artists included: Walter De Maria (b.1935), Jan Dibbets (b.1941), Hans Haacke (b.1936), Michael Heizer (b.1944), Richard Long (b.1945), David Medalla, Robert Morris (b.1931), Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, and Gunther Uecker (b.1930). Other American artists who became part of the movement include Nancy Holt, Alice Aycock, Alan Sonfist, and James Turrell (b.1943).
Outside America, the leading postmodernist artists involved in land art include: the British sculptor and mixed-media artist Andy Goldsworthy, the British sculptor Richard Long (b.1945) and of course the German avant-garde experimental artist and sculptor Joseph Beuys. The Bulgarian sculptor Christo Javacheff (b.1935), noted for enveloping buildings and landscapes in fabric, is also associated with the movement.
As stated, American Land artists were dependent on wealthy patrons and foundations to finance their high-cost projects. After the economic depression of the mid-70s, funds dried up, and after the untimely death of Robert Smithson in in 1973, the movement declined rapidly.
Famous Examples of Land Art
Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty
Artist: Robert Smithson
Realized in April 1970, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is one of the most recognizable works from the Earth art movement. Smithson constructed a 1,500-foot-long and fifteen-foot-wide spiral made of stones, algae, and other organic materials (6,000 tons in all) in the northeastern part of Utah's Great Salt Lake. The Ace Gallery of Vancouver and Dwan financed an earth-moving company to create the spiral out of basalt rock and earth from the surrounding area. In 1972, when the water level rose, the work became submerged. Thirty years later, as the lake's water levels changed, Spiral Jetty became visible again, revealing the basalt rock crusted over with white salt. The work was inspired by the Pre-Columbian structure Serpent Mound, which Smithson had seen on a site visit in Ohio. Spiral Jetty and Smithson's body of work as a whole were typical of Earth art in their protest against the commodification of the art market since it was impossible to buy or sell the work. The physical mutability and even invisibility of the work resulting from natural processes, such as water currents and erosion, were essential to its meaning. As a work of art that was not only remote, but also at times impossible to view because of the forces of nature, Spiral Jetty is one of the best examples of Earth art and also underscores the movement's roots in Conceptualism.
Another famous earthwork - probably the largest ever attempted - was James Turrell's project to re-sculpt the earth around the Roden Crater volcano in Arizona. Other famous projects include Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude's encirclement of eleven Florida islands in pink polypropylene fabric in 1980-3, and their 1997-8 installation at the Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park in Basel, Switzerland, during which 180 trees were wrapped in woven polyester fabric. Alan Sonfist's Time Garden in New York is another work of note.
Andy Goldsworthy's forte is the subtle rearrangement of natural materials, and is noted for his assembly of thirteen jumbo-size snowballs (London, 2000), a perfect illustration of postmodernist art. Other artworks include Conch Shell Leafwork (1988) and Arch at Goodwood (2002). Richard Long began by recording his footsteps over the countryside in photographic form. He moved on to assembling rocks, sticks and mud in aesthetic configurations, often in large-scale circles. His works include A Square of Ground (1966), A Line Made by Walking (1967), and Red Slate Circle (1980).
The essential feature of Land Art is the inseparable link between the work of art and the landscape in which it is placed.
Land Art is often comprised of such materials as stone, bedrock, water, branches and other natural elements, but concrete, metal, and pigments are often employed as well. Initially, Land Art became popular in the American Southwest, but these works now only exist as photographs or recordings. The artists of these works began to create Land Art as a way to condemn the artificiality of commercialized art that was popular during their era. The first work termed as Land Art was created at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture by artists Douglas Leichter and Richard Saba.
Because projects were often large in scale, artists required the use of equipment in order to move the earth to their design. As these projects were frequently costly, the artists depended largely upon supporting foundations or private patrons. For this reason, Land Art declined during the hard economic times of the 1970s. Smithson, the leading figure of the movement, died in a plane crash in 1973. However, other prominent Land Art artists include Hans Haacke, Alice Aycock, Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, James Turrell, and Andrew Rogers.
Land Art is not confined to the U.S. either. The art form exists throughout Europe and is today growing in popularity in Africa. Land Art, which is additionally known as Earthwork, does not always disappear into the landscape and many famous works may still be viewed along with their changes over time. And, although the art form is not as popular as it once was, it is still used by various contemporary artists like Alan Sonfist, Walter De Maria, and Richard Long. Works of Land Art often depict both abstract and familiar imagery in the designs.
Land Art artists
Sun Tunnels Artist: Nancy Holt Positioning four gigantic concrete hollow cylinders, each measuring nine feet in diameter, Nancy Holt arranged her tunnels at precise geographical points to correspond with the sunrise and sunset during the summer and winter solstices, much like Stonehenge. Fascinated by astronomy, Holt punctured the cylinders with holes of differing sizes to create shadows of select constellations. Like some other Earth artists, Holt had a significant interest in science and ecology, actively informed by her undergraduate work at Tufts University. Sun Tunnels closely examines the physical qualities of perception, marking accurate positions of the sun on the horizon and allowing light to filter through the starry holes according to the position of available light. Holt created preparatory light works on paper, which captured the play of sunlight in two- and three-dimensional models. Her research-based practice and interest in remote locales connected Holt not only to other artists working in this mode, but also to the Conceptual interest in the intersection of art and ideas. The work is not meant to disintegrate as the majority of Earthworks, but it draws attention to the details of nature in a site-specific and remote locale. Four 18 foot concrete cylinders
The Lightning Field
Artist: Walter de Maria
This work consists of 400 poles that are each set 220 feet apart in a grid format. The height of the piece varies from 15 to 26 feet depending on the level of the land. While the highly polished poles are meant to visually mark the undulations of the landscape, their primary function is to attract lightning, especially during lightning storm season in late summer when lightning strikes the rods and illuminates the installation. De Maria's use of a precise grid format is drawn from Minimalism, but the viewer's experience will depend on a number of environmental factors outside of the artist's control. For example, the work's visual impact is based on fluctuations in weather and the change of seasons; the piece would lose much of its attraction at times of the year when lightning is infrequent. As with most Earthworks, the site is remote and viewing is made more difficult by the requirement for viewers to stay overnight at cabins on site; no children are allowed. Much like Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels, De Maria's work pairs fleeting moments of nature with the heroic materials of manmade industry.
400 stainless steel poles arranged in a grid measuring 1 x 1 km
Smithson, R., 'A tour of the monuments of Passaic', New Jersey , Mitchell, M., 'Evidence and Entropy'
Robert Smithson: The Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects (1968).
Max Andrews (Ed.): Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (2006).
John Beardsley: Earthworks and Beyond. Contemporary Art in the Landscape (1998).
Amy Dempsey: Destination Art (2006).
Gilles A. Tiberghien: Land Art (1995).
John K. Grande: Balance: Art and Nature (2003).
John K. Grande: Art Nature Dialogues: Interviews w. Environmental Artists (2004).
Udo Weilacher: Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art (1999).
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