Richard Long (b.1945, Bristol, UK) is one of the UK’s most significant artists. He has been at the forefront of contemporary art for over forty years, pioneering new art forms through an exploration of landscape as both the medium and subject of his work.
Long has stated that it was his intention ‘to make a new way of walking: walking as art.’ He has continued to develop this idea, manifesting the walks as art in three ways: in maps, as photographs, or as text works. Each walk expresses a particular idea, such as walking in a straight line for a predetermined distance; walking between the sources of rivers; measuring a walk by tides (lunar time); or dropping a stone into each river crossed on a coast to coast walk.
Long’s sculptures occur either in the landscape, made along the way on a walk, or in the gallery, made as a response to a particular place. He works with natural materials such as sticks or slate to make sculptures and often uses mud or clay in his drawings and wall-works.
‘My work has become a simple metaphor for life. A figure walking down his road, making his mark. It is an affirmation of my human scale and senses: how far I walk, what stones I pick up, my particular experiences. Nature has more effect on me than I on it. I am content with the vocabulary of universal and common means: walking, placing, stones, sticks, water, circles, lines, days, nights, roads.’
Richard Long, 1983
Richard Long installs his exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield
Related exhibitions & events
Artist Rooms: Richard Long
23 Jun - 14 Oct 2012
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