LAND ART
art in the land and land in art - projects by Lucien den Arend
LAND ART projects by the sculptor were influenced by the characteristics of the Dutch landscape. His earth art, earthworks or landart is a projection of this man-made land - a flat and geometrically laid out landscape. The landscape in Holland is flat and the land has been completely designed by man. Whereas land art is usually made in natural surroundings, it is a difficult task for an artist to design in an already planned environment.
for next click the pictures
land art project with red steel element - homage to El Lissitzky - 1985|1986 - 100x200x7.50m - test circuit and test center of the national Road and Transport Department of The Netherlands - Lelystad NL (the work has been demolished in the early nineties)
The first land art which the sculptor executed was a design for an interior garden in the DSW factory in Dordrecht, Holland. It would be his first land art project in Holland. He started with his first proposal in 1969. The landscape of the location - before the factory was built - had evolved into agricultural area, consisting of fields with the River Dubbel meandering through them. He used this aspect of the former landscape by using the perimeter of the patio as a frame through which the observer could get a view of the former characteristics of the landscape on which the DSW plant had been projected.
Sometimes site specific sculpture and land art can be located in remote areas. One would argue that the public can't see the art, so what is the sense of it then? First of all there will always be interested people who go to see the work. Sometimes these works depend on their isolated environment. But let's not forget another argument: through photography and video it is now possible to make these works accessible for a much greater public than the numbers of people that actually visit these works of land art, site specific sculpture or whatever classification that art historians have contrived or will think of in the future.
trajectory for Rembrandt - 2002 - Salix Alba (white willow) - arc length 250m - Baarn NL (view to the south)
Read more about the sculptor's views on land art - an interview.
Land art uses land as a medium. The land is the material and the tools are those which have always been used to shape the land.
from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Land art or earth art is a form of art which came to prominence in
the late 1960s and 1970s primarily concerned with the natural environment.
Materials such as rocks, sticks, soil, plants and so on are often used,
and the works frequently exist in the open and are left to change and
erode under natural conditions. Particularly large works are sometimes
known as earthworks. Many of the works were ephemeral in nature and
now only exist as photographic documents. Already in the thirties Isamu
Noguchi was going beyond the traditional concept of sculpture. In 1941
he made a design for
Contoured Playground. His influence on contemporary land art and
environmental sculptures is evident in many works today.
Land art or earth art is a form of art which came to prominence in the
late 1960s and 1970s primarily concerned with the natural environment.
Materials such as rocks, sticks, soil, plants and so on are often used,
and the works frequently exist in the open and are left to change and
erode under natural conditions. Particularly large works are sometimes
known as earthworks. Many of the works were ephemeral in nature and
now only exist as photographic documents.
The movement was inspired mostly 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 Minimalism and Conceptual Art but according to the
critic Barbara Rose writing in 'Artforum' in 1969 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.
The movement was 'launched' in October 1968 by the group exhibition
'Earthworks' at the Dawn 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. 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.
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".
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 Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy. 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 1000 Oak trees has many similarities
to 'Land art processes.
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 Smithson in a plane crash in 1973 the movement lost
its figurehead and petered out. Turrell continues to work on the Roden
Crater project. In most respects 'Land art' has become part of mainstream
Public Art.
In 1998 a group of artists started in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) a
project called Indoor Land Art Programme - ILAP, and had shows all over
Europe.
One particularly unusual example of land art is the well known Marree
Man in South Australia which is both the largest, and unique because,
despite this, it came into being without any witnesses whatsoever to
its presumably extensive creation activity and no artist(s) have either
laid claim to the work or ever been identified!"
