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Land Art, since the 1960's, have been come to be known as the creation of beautiful art through using materials in the landscape and nature to create structures and earthworks out of rocks and twigs. Though this process can seem trivial and strange at first, it has come to be some of the most interesting art to see just from how much harder it is to actually find these pieces. Most artwork that is considered Land Art is found out in the middle of the wild and far from roads. It becomes a much more beautiful piece knowing you had to search for it in the wild rather than finding it at another museum you saw online. The sense of adventure looking for these pieces of art is one of its biggest selling points.

Three of the most well known artisans of this particular form of art are Robert Smithson, Maya Ying Lin and the team of Christo & Jean-Claude.

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The biggest influence on the creation of Land Art was the fact that Art as a whole was becoming way too commercialized instead of enjoying the beauty of the piece itself. In order to combat the horrors of capitol greed, Land Art was created to separate art from the confines of museums and galleries. Though materials being limited to what was around you was a problem, Land Art provided way more space than any canvas or building ever could which lead to a lot of massively scaled projects to be created during this time. Most of these projects achieved the initial goal of Land Artists since these projects could not be moved like traditional sculptures could. Although there would still be pictures of the Land Art presented at galleries, most people upon seeing these pictures would make an effort to see the original piece in person.

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The two biggest influences on the style of this art was minimal art and conceptual art. Minimal Art is the concept of creating art through the simplest of shapes and colors to form an impersonal style. Conceptual art is that the idea or concept of a piece is more important than the execution of the piece. In the picture above you can see these two concepts in play from the simple shapes and design to the orderly pattern of leaves falling from four perfectly aligned trees.

However, the characteristics of Land Art are what define the style rather than what it is based off of. Firstly, the project needs to be specific to the site and surrounding area itself. It can not just have pinecones placed in a stack in a birch forest, the two have no relation to each other. Secondly, natural materials must be used in the project or else it is not Land Art. Lastly, like nature itself, it must change overtime to truly be a representation of the landscape.

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The most notable and famous Land Artist during this time and movement was Robert Smithson. His work has become some of the most notable examples in Land Art while still standing to this day for tourists. He was mostly inspired by entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, and how it worked with nature in terms of geology and mineralogy. Spiral Jetty was created because Robert was inspired by the red-violet coloration of the lake and how the colors evoked a ruined sci-fi feel to them. He chose to create a coiling structure because the shape reminded him of how certain crystals grow and how much it looked like an alien creation.

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Maya Lin was making art for as long as she could remember since her father was a ceramicist. She became fascinated by the natural world, so much that she initially wanted to be in the field of animals. She was taking university level art classes when she was in high school and began experimenting with bronze foundry. The skills she picked up in her lifetime show greatly through this piece of art shown above. Water Line may seem like a random assortment of wires placed around for visual effect, but it is actually a geographical map of the ocean floor around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Though this piece strays from the original ideas of Land Art, it still heralded to be a great example of the Land Art movement shown in the modern day era.

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Alberto Burri, Grande Cretto Bianco, 1985-2015

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Alberto Burri was a man of many talents, being an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor, and physician. Most of mis work was actually painting the concepts of nature and how they affected each other. However, his largest creation was a piece of Land Art created to represent the natural world being realized in a modern way. Though it breaks some traditions set by the rules of Land Art, it still considered on of the largest pieces of Land Art still standing today. Sadly, the creator could not see it to completion as it was finally inaugurated on 2015 after starting construction in 1985.

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Christo & Jean-Claude, Valley Curtain, 1975

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Christo became highly well versed in politics after his education in Soviet Socialist Realism and fleeing as a refugee. Afterwards, real world politics became the primary source of his art creation and inspiration. He and his wife, Jean-Claude, were mostly known for their massive creations across various sites. One of their most famous creations is the Valley Curtain created in the Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado. This creation is one of the greatest feats in engineering as well as one of the most expensive to have setbacks with since it was tied down with 27 ropes, and spread across the valley at a maximum measurement of 1,250 feet wide and 365 feet high. Once it was finally assembled, it only lasted about 28 hours before being threatened by 60mph winds.

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Dennis Oppenheim is a very well known artist who made his name using large scale surrealist art. One of his lesser known pieces of work is actually a great example of Land Art and how the concept was originally intended to be. The entire project is just created by making circles of cleared snow that intersect with the river. Though it seems to be a weird project to undertake, it actually represents the violent geo-political boundaries between states. The river serves as a natural barrier between the snow circles which represents the artificial walls put up by society on multiple subject whether physical, social, or mental.