Richard Long
(British, b. 1945)
Unlike Alfredo Jaar’s work, which juxtaposes fabricated and natural materials to comment on the effects of human intervention on the landscape, Richard Long’s sculptures refer to the materials of nature as well as to the artist’s experience of it in space and time.
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Richard Long |
As a boy, Long was captivated by the outdoors. He liked to be on his own to explore nature on his walks.
Long’s artworks explore the artist’s experience of nature in time and space; consequently, he incorporates the materials of nature in this sculpture. His work is sometimes categorized with that of the earthworks artists, a group of artists who began in the 1960s to use natural materials and to work outside of gallery settings, often altering the landscape itself. Though Long uses natural materials, he does not reject museums and galleries as places in which to exhibit his work.
Long seeks to integrate his physical movement through the landscape into his art. For instance, after observing that if he walked in a field of grass once it barely left a trace, but if he walked back and forth along the same line, the trail he created became more apparent, Long created A Line Made by Walking (1967). This work was the first in a series of sculptures, photographs, and word pieces that originated from his interactions with nature. Long remarks that he likes many of his works to be impermanent. He continues to walk, hike, camp, and climb outdoors because, he says, he finds a peaceful kind of rhythm during these activities.
Long summed up his artistic aims in a statement from the early 1970s:
My art is about working in the wide world, wherever. It has the themes
of materials, ideas, movement (walking), and time. The beauty of
objects, thoughts, places, and actions. I hope to make images and ideas
which resonate in the imagination, that mark the earth and the mind. My
work is about my senses, my scale, my instinct. I use the world as I
find it, by design and by chance.
Fire Rock Circle, 1987
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Fire Rock Circle, 1987 |
Yet the artist did manipulate his materials to produce certain effects.
For example, the work demonstrates the principle of contrast—the rocks
placed in the pristine environment of the museum, the irregularity of
their form coupled with the perfect unity of the circle. In addition to
the straight line, the artist favors the form of the circle, possibly
because it has no beginning and no end. This endless motion ultimately
refers back to the source of the artwork, namely, Long’s walk in nature.
According to the artist, the journeys themselves are works of art: “the
purpose of the artwork is not to illustrate . . . beauty but to give, as
purely as possible, the idea of the walk.”
Ideas for activities
Art
Have students collect natural materials—rocks, leaves—on the way to
school and ask them to create a collage or sculpture that makes
reference to their route.
Language arts
Ask students to write a story about making a journey. Students should
focus less on the destination than on the journey itself. Consider using
Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled” as inspiration.
Science
Arrange a visit to a local forest preserve and have students collect
specimens of leaves, rocks, and so forth. Then, after returning to the
classroom, have students research their findings and present them to the
class.
Have students investigate the properties of fire rocks.
Questions for looking and discussion
Additional work by Richard Long