Land art, also called earth art, environmental art or earthworks, is an art form that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, associated largely with Great Britain and the United States but with examples from many other countries. It expanded the materials and sites of art making to the earth itself, using soil, rock, vegetation and water found on site, often at locations far from population centers, with photographic documentation typically brought back to urban galleries to represent otherwise inaccessible works.
Facts
MediumThe materials of the earth itself, including soil, rock, vegetation and water found on site. 1 Signature TechniqueLarge-scale, site-specific earthworks built directly in the landscape rather than as a transportable, sellable object, with photographic documentation often standing in for the work in a gallery. 1 Place of OriginThe United States and Great Britain, where the movement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. 1 Notable ExampleRobert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970), widely regarded as the most famous work of land art, a 1,500-foot rock and earth spiral in Utah's Great Salt Lake. 1 Connections
Associated With
Land art is closely related to installation art; both emerged from 1960s-70s practices that moved sculpture beyond the gallery into site-specific, often ephemeral works.
Landscape architecture and land art share a concern with shaping large-scale outdoor terrain, though land art is made as sculpture rather than functional design.
Sources
1. Land Art (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead section, first paragraph
Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United States
Form section
developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of traditional transportable sculpture and the commercial art market, although photographic documentation was often presented in normal gallery spaces.
Form section, Robert Smithson paragraph
His best known piece, and probably the most famous piece of all land art, is the Spiral Jetty (1970), for which Smithson arranged rock, earth and algae so as to form a long (1500 ft) spiral-shape jetty protruding into Great Salt Lake in northern Utah, U.S.
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