Land & Environmental Art (Themes and Movements)

The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by the vast uncultivated spaces of the desert and mountain as well as post-industrial wastelands artists such as Michael Heizer Nancy Holt or Robert Smithson moved earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts such as Christos "Running Fence" or Walter de Marias "Lightning Field". Journeys became works of art for Richard Long whilst Dennis Oppenheim and Ana Mendieta immersed their bodies in the contours of the land. This text traces early developments to the present day where artists are exploring eco-systems and the interface between industrial urban and rural cultures. Alongside photographs sketches and project notes Kastner compiles an archive of statements by all the featured artists alongside related texts by art historians critics philosophers and cultural theorists including Jean Baudrillard Edmund Burke Guy Debord Michael Fried Dave Hickey Rosalind Krauss Lucy R. Lippard Thomas McEvilley Carolyn Merchant and Simon Schama.