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if it doesn't play here it should take you to youtube!

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Land art is made directly in the landscape by sculpting the land itself or by making structures in the landscape with natural materials. Land art, is also known as earth art. It started with a group of innovative artists who explored natural sites, alternative modes of artistic production, and ways to circumvent the commercial art system such as museums and galleries.

It initially began as a trend in sculpture to incorporate natural materials like dirt, rocks, and plants. It quickly blossomed into a process-based approach in which the artist would make excursions into the surrounding environment to collect objects or alter the terrain in some way. Some artists used machines to makes large changes for their earthworks, while others made minimal and temporary alterations to the landscape. Typically, all the materials for the project will come from the surroundings or that site. Artists typically documented their artwork using photographs, films, and maps for exhibition in galleries.

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Conceptual art is art for which the idea (concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. Conceptual art ignores traditions of craftsmanship and style to place renewed focus on content, which we see heavily in land art as well.  Like conceptual art, land art is often concerned about more than the beauty and aesthetic pleasure offered by the artwork. While the majority of land art is visually stunning, at its core, the pieces were imbued with deeper meaning.

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Minimalism emerged in New York in the early 1960s among artists who were trying to renounce recent art they thought had become stale and academic. A wave of new influences and reemergent older styles led younger artists to question the conventional boundaries previously established. Many of these ideas carry over directly to land art. The driving philosophy of land art shared certain ideas with minimalism, including its concerns with how objects occupied space; the interaction of humans with works of art; and, simplicity of form. The adoption of the simpler minimalist aesthetic was often central to land art. Earthworks, primarily residing outdoors and made of natural materials, were also subject to degradation and erosion that occur with time, which was in opposition to minimalism's more industrial and urban aesthetic.

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Born in Passaic in New Jersey January 2, 1938, Robert Smithson ( – July 20, 1973) was an artist who expanded what art could be and where art could be found or viewed. For more than fifty years his works have inspired various later artists.  Challenging the conceptual and physical boundaries of landscape Smithson raised questions about our place in the world that have become increasingly popular recently.

Initially, Smithson started out as a painter with many interests such as science fiction, catholic art, Pop art, natural history, classical art, and pornography. In 1967 Smithson began exploring areas around New Jersey and was fascinated by the sight of large trucks excavating tons of earth and rock that he described in an essay as "the equivalents of the monuments of antiquity." In 1969 he began producing land art pieces.

Probably his most well known and influential work is Spiral Jetty (1970). It is a 1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide counterclockwise spiral of basalt rocks and mud found locally, forming a jetty that juts from the shore of the Great Salt Lake. Smithson chose this location with reference to nearby abandoned oil rigs, hoping that his artwork would draw attention to them. The Spiral Jetty ​is a testament to Smithson’s fascination with entropy. The location will lead to the structure’s unavoidable disintegration, yet its impressive size and deliberate shape command the surrounding landscape. Unfortunately, he died At age thirty-five,July 20, 1973, while photographing Amarillo Ramp, one of his works, in a small airplane accident

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Maya Ying Lin, born October 5,1959, is an American designer and sculptor that attended Yale University. Lin has designed numerous memorials, one of which is the Vietnam Veteran’s memorial, public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures. She is best known for historical memorials; however, she is also known for environmentally themed works. Her environmental monuments often address environmental decline. Lin says, she draws inspiration from the architecture of nature but believes that nothing she creates can match its beauty. She thinks her interest in the environment comes from her childhood in rural Ohio. Lin commented, "I'm very much a product of the growing awareness about ecology and the environmental movement...I am very drawn to landscape, and my work is about finding a balance in the landscape, respecting nature not trying to dominate it. Even the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is an earthwork. All of my work is about slipping things in, inserting an order or a structuring, yet making an interface so that in the end, rather than a hierarchy, there is a balance and tension between the man-made and the natural."

Though not her most well know her Wave Field has proven to be quite influential, and is my personal favorite with my interest in science as well. Wave Field is a collection of waves that emulate ocean waves. She created it using simple garden tools. To accurately portray the work and demonstrate fluidity that she wanted in it she studied fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, and turbulence at University of Michigan for three months. The work is also located at the University of Michigan. It measures in at a gigantic 10,000 square feet. It has been noted that it is quite different walking across than viewing it through the window of one of the classrooms. It changes constantly throughout the day as the sun passes and shadows emerge and shift highlighting the interconnectedness between art and landscape.

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Christo was born on June 13, 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. He left Bulgaria in 1956, first to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and then escaped to Vienna, Austria, in 1957, then moved to Geneva, Switzerland. In 1958, Christo went to Paris, where he met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, his wife and  life partner in the creation of monumental land art monuments. Jeanne-Claude died November 18, 2009. Christo passed away May 31, 2020 at his home in New York City.Together, the duo created enormous sculptures and alterations to the environment which often utilized the technique of wrapping landscapes, buildings, and other miscellaneous objects with fabric. While they often insisted that the aesthetic properties of their art constituted its primary value, “I make things that have no function- except maybe to make pleasure,” audiences and critics worldwide have long noticed a broader message across their work, with themes ranging from environmental degradation, to the difficult history of the 20th century, and the Cold War. They often worked outside the gallery system and not allowing negotiations through art dealers either which is not uncommon for land artists.

Possibly there most influential and well known piece is The Running Fence. It took 42 months of collaborative efforts from them and many supporters. It was 24.5 miles long and 18 feet high, with one end finishing at the Pacific Ocean. This monumental temporary artwork was made of 240,000 square yards of heavy woven white nylon fabric, 90 miles of steel cable, 2,050 steel poles, and 350,000 hooks. When it was revealed during America's bicentennial, it stirred the publics attention and led to much curiosity. The dazzling beauty of the light and weather resting across the fabric of the fence stood in drastic contrast to the connotation of division and limitations that fences generally convey.

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This interesting work of art was made by Richard Long, a student in London at the time this was made. He created it by walking back and forth across a path in Wiltshire many times. Here, Long emphasizes that nature is experienced by the act of walking and the temporal factor of art with how it will disappear. It also demonstrates how humans have an impact on the land. With its simple, geometric shape, a single straight line, the work is reminiscent of and shows influence of minimalism. The work was groundbreaking in its utter simplicity and fleetingness as it would have been invisible within hours or days as nature would have taken its course.

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In Utah’s Great Basin Desert, Nancy Holt’s massive ​Sun Tunnels ​sits along the horizon, visible from over a mile away. Four concrete structures are arranged in a cross, positioned precisely to frame the sun as it rises and sets during the summer and winter solstices. Small holes are placed in the concrete to cast projections of constellations along the tunnels’ interior. The constellations materialize with sunlight with their patterns cast upon the viewer inside the tunnel.  Each tunnel is eighteen feet long, and has an outside diameter of nine feet and are seven inches thick. Each tunnel weighs twenty-two tons and rests on a buried concrete foundation.

One the few women associated with Land art, Holt is a key yet under-appreciated artist who has produced stunning projects across the globe. The purpose of this work and much of her art seems to be to transforms our perception of place, space, and time.