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Land art, a largely American movement, is a form of art that helped establish and progress the postmodernist art movement. Closely related and based off of Conceptualism and Minimalism, Land Art started in the 1960's by artists who started to make site-specific art. Site specific art refers to works created for and utilizing aspects or characteristics of a particular location. (see artsy.net)

The key components used to create land art, also called Earthworks, were often materials available to the artists at the site of the artwork. Materials typically included typically dirt, rocks, gravel, sand, and vegetation. Artists would manipulate the landscape creating mounds or trenches and using other natural elements to express their work.
Sites usually were distant locations away from large populations and chosen intentionally to highlight the area and the surrounding landscape. The main focus of land art focuses on the landscape, the process of creating the piece, and the ability for people to interact with it as it changes with time. (see theartstory.org)

Because land art was not presented in a gallery, it was heavily dependent on videography and photography to capture the creations of many artists.

Below is an example of land art. This piece may be familiar as it is located in Las Vegas, Nevada right off Interstate 15. This Land Art is titled Seven Magic Mountains and was created by Ugo Rondinone.

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With the rising movement of postmodernism, artists began to challenge the constraints of art being found only in museums and galleries. A primary reason that artists began to create Land Art was, in fact, to escape the gallery system. Robert Smithson, a influential land artist said the following:

"A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world. … Works of art seen in such spaces … are looked upon as so many inanimate invalids, waiting for critics to declare them curable or incurable. The function of the warden-curator is to separate art from society. Next comes integration. Once the work of art is totally neutralized, ineffective, abstracted, safe, and politically lobotomized it is ready to be consumed by society.” (see Sayre)

Two famous land artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, said:

"Nobody can buy the work, nobody can own the work, and nobody can charge tickets for the work. We do not own the projects, they are beyond the ownership of the artists because freedom is the enemy of possession, that’s why these projects do not stay. They are absolutely related to artistic and aesthetic freedom.” (see Sayre)

Land artists rejected the commodity status these venues conferred on art, again challenging traditional definitions of art as something to be bought and sold for profit. (see theartstory.org)

In addition to being bought and sold as a commodity, art at this time was isolated from the outside world of problems such as the Vietnam, civil rights, and second wave feminism. Art stored in a gallery tended to forget about these problems. Land art worked to address these issue outside the ignorant art galleries.

In the 1970's the Environmental movement began. People began promoting the care of the world and Earth Day was officially made an annual event to support environmental protection of Earth. Land art showed large support of this movement and had many works to further support environmentalism. (see video below)

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The Case for Land Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

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In addition to the rise of environmentalism, one of the large social problems that motivated land artists, and specifically Christo and Jeanne-Claude, was the Vietnam war.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were some of the most influential land artists. They created the work title Running Fence and their work was only complete for 14 days before they took it down.

Running Fence took nearly five years to complete from 1972 to 1976. The fence was eighteen feet high and was 24.5 miles long running through 59 private ranches located in Sonoma and Marine Counties in Northern California. The entire piece required 2.2 million square feet of white nylon fabric and 2050 steel poles.

A primary feature of Running Fence was the needed collaboration. Public hearing, agreements of local ranchers, and a 450 page impact plan outlining the environmental effects of the art piece were required for this to realized. In addition to inspiring a sense of collaboration, the artists chose to purchase the steel poles from Vietnam surplus normally used to construct Vietnam airports. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were able to buy them for 42 dollars a pole. When the art piece was taken down, the poles were donated to the farmers to use for building cattle guards and fences. The message behind Running Fence was that of turning a materials of war into art and things used in peace. (see Sayre)

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One of the most famous piece of land art that truly escapes the galleries and populated areas in metropolitan areas is Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty created in 1970. Spiral Jetty is located 100 miles north of Salt Lake City and 15 miles south of the Golden Spike National Historic Monument.

Spiral Jetty was created by dumping over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks, salt, and earth from the surrounding site in a spiral form jutting out from the bank of the Salt Lake. (see diaart.org)

Smithson believed firmly in entropy, the condition of decreasing organization or deterioration, and believed that it was a defining characteristic of the modern. The site echoes the idea of entropy as the creation was placed in a inhospitable site.

The Spiral Jetty land art also was created during the rise of a wider focus on environmental issues. Smithson said that there were old jetties, polluted lakes, and abandoned mines which devastated nature. One practical use of these is to turn them into works of art. (see Sayre)

One thing that is unique about this art piece is that it was meant to change with the alteration of time. Smithson did not like the idea of trying to immortalize art in museums by carefully preserving it. The changing of this piece with time reinforces to viewers that they too will change with time and be altered, eventually degrading as Spiral Jetty is.

Spiral Jetty can still be viewed today. It was taken up by the Dia Art Foundation. They decided to regularly document this land art to preserve it as it changes with time. (see smarthistory video below)

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Richard Long was a British artists that also had significant contributions to land art. He created the land art titled A Line Made by Walking in 1967. The piece was created by Long repeatedly walking over the same line in a secluded grassy field. A photograph was taken to save the work which eventually disappeared as the grass returned back to its normal upright state. (see tate.org)

An interviewer asked Long about his opinion on global warming in which Long replied that "My work is just art, not 'political' art." Richard Long's work comes from his desire to be engaged harmony with nature and not from any political or ecological motives. (see Sayre)

Land art can serve to inspire and send a message or ,like Richard Long, it can be created simply to experience nature and her associated pleasures.

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Artist Andres Amador, from Northern California, painstakingly rakes sand into geometric and natural patterns during low tide just to see them be washed away a few hours later. He captures his work using a drone. Andres says he doesn't feel connected with the artwork and is fine watching it be washed away. He feels accomplished and that his work brings new meaning to him and those who view his work. (see theculturetrip.com)

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Andres Amador's Earthscapes: Art that Goes Out with the Tide | KQED Arts

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Michael Heizer created the land art monument Double Negative in 1969 in the Moapa Valley of Mormon Mesa near Overton, Nevada.

The work was created by digging out a large trench (30 feet wide, 50 feet high, and 1500 feet ling) between the saddle of a natural canyon. The whole process required the removal of 244,000 tons of rock, dirt, and sandstone. (see wikipedia.org)

The title Double Negative highlights the fact that there is nothing there. The rock has been removed on both sides of the canyon and also there was nothing there to begin with, just barren desert.

Heizer once said "There is nothing there, yet it is still a sculpture." (see moca.org)

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I thought it would be fun to highlight one piece of land art that is in Utah. Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels are located in the Great Basin Desert in northwestern Utah. The piece is composed of four concrete cylinders that align with the setting sun for the summer and winter solstices. There are also holes cut into the concrete cylinders of constellations. These holes make dynamic designs when light shine through them at different times of day. Today, Dia Art Foundation is the owner of the Sun Tunnels monument and allows people to go experience the land art for themselves and also preserving it for future viewers. (see diaart.org)