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"International art form that developed particularly from the late 1960s and early 1970s. A number of mainly British and North American artists turned their attention to working directly with nature,They created immense sculptures on the same scale as landscape itself, or exhibited written and photographic accounts of their excursions. With few exceptions, their works (also known as earthworks) are almost inaccessible, situated far from human settlements in deserts or abandoned areas. Their lifespan was brief: little by little they were destroyed by the elements and often by erosion, so that for posterity they exist only in the form of preparatory drawings, photographs, or films. The works themselves were seen by only a small number of people and sometimes by only the artist." (Google Arts & Culture)

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International art form that developed particularly from the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was part of a revolt against painting and sculpture and the anti-formalist current of the late 1960s that included conceptual art and Arte Povera. A number of mainly British and North American artists turned their attention to working directly with nature, notably Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, and Richard Long. They created immense sculptures on the same scale as landscape itself, or exhibited written and photographic accounts of their excursions. With few exceptions, their works (also known as earthworks) are almost inaccessible, situated far from human settlements in deserts or abandoned areas. Their lifespan was brief: little by little they were destroyed by the elements and often by erosion, so that for posterity they exist only in the form of preparatory drawings, photographs, or films. The works themselves were seen by only a small number of people and sometimes by only the artist.

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International art form that developed particularly from the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was part of a revolt against painting and sculpture and the anti-formalist current of the late 1960s that included conceptual art and Arte Povera.

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Closely related to conceptual and minimalist art, land artists were motivated to escape the gallery system as a symbol of the establishment. This came at a time of people that were disenchanted by the Vietnam War, the culture of consumption, the growing dominance of mass media, and the military-industrial complex. (Pearson 39.2)

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Beginnings of Earth Art

Extending Minimalist and Conceptual Ideas

The late 1960s and 1970s was one of the most experimental periods in the history of Western art with many concurrent movements and artists working simultaneously in more than one style, making it sometimes difficult to definitively attach stylistic labels to works from the period. The ethos of Earth art, for example, shared certain characteristics with Minimalism, including its concerns with how objects occupied their space; the interaction of humans with works of art; and, especially, simplicity of form. However, although the adoption of the pared down Minimalist aesthetic was often central to Earth art, the artists were typically hands-on with the documentation and process of production, at times even including a performative element; these characteristics aligned Earth artists more with Post-Minimalist tendencies such as process art, installation art, and performance Art. Earthworks, largely existing outdoors and made of natural elements, were also subject to the natural degradation and erosion that would occur with time, which was antithetical to Minimalism's more industrial and urban aesthetic, making it one of the most unique elements of the Earth art movement.

Like Conceptual art, Earth art was not just about the beauty and aesthetic pleasure offered by the artwork. Almost all Earthworks stressed the rejection of commodity status and mainstream exhibition venues, focusing instead on ephemerality. So while the majority of Earth art was visually stunning, at its core, the pieces were imbued with these concepts.

The 1960s and Virginia Dwan

Earth artists were typically products of the Vietnam era, many of whom had been drafted to fight in the war and were college educated through the G.I. Bill. Most, like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, began their careers as painters. Smithson's first paintings evolved from figurative abstractions to geometrical canvases, and then eventually to sculpture. In 1966, Smithson began showing with the influential gallerist Virginia Dwan, who would shape the Earth art movement significantly.

At the same time, Smithson began working as a consultant for a New York City engineering firm, a position that inspired him to plan what he called "Aerial Art" for the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Aerial Art comprised monumental works to be constructed between airport runways that were meant to be viewed from above during takeoff and landing. As an art form, Aerial Art never came to fruition, but Smithson and his colleagues, such as Carl Andre, Nancy Holt, Robert Morris, and Michael Heizer, were inspired by the idea to explore various unexploited territories in nearby New Jersey and in various western states that provided large, open spaces.

Dwan, who was the heiress to the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company (3M) and had studied art, often accompanied artists to far-flung sites and provided generous patronage and support to produce Earth art projects that would have foundered with no funding. In 1968, Dwan exhibited a show entitled Earth Works at her gallery space in New York City, publicly identifying a group of pioneering artists. Some of the artists in the show were having a difficult time finding available land for their site-specific projects, so Earth Works exhibited the documentation of these projects by artists such as Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, and Stephen Kaltenbach. The show cataloged the conception of their work through maps, photographs, transparencies, and drawings. There is some irony in the fact that while these artists tried to eschew traditional institutions, they were often required to accept funding from them in order to further their projects. In addition, the remoteness of certain sites, many of which could only be viewed from private aircraft, meant that the movement was sometimes accused of elitism.

Institutional Exhibitions and Global Ambitions

In February of 1969, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University became the first American museum to show an exhibit of Earth art, entitled simply, Earth Art. The works were displayed both at the museum and throughout the grounds of Cornell's campus in Ithaca, thus providing an institutional setting for works that would continue to question the commodity status of art, particularly those works placed on the campus which served to blur boundaries between the object and its context. Curated by Willoughby Sharp, an independent scholar and cofounder of the avant-garde art magazine Avalanche, Earth Art exhibited new works created onsite by American artists such as Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, Michael Heizer, Walter de Maria, and Dennis Oppenheim. International artists such as British artist Richard Long and German artist Hans Haacke were also included. The 1970s would usher in a new decade of extremely ambitious projects in far-flung American locales, further expanding the American contribution to Earth art.

Earth Art: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

Site-specificity and Environmentalism

Smithson delineated the concepts of "Site" and "Nonsite" to designate theoretical differences in the physical context of work produced. "Nonsite" was termed as an "indoor earthwork" and indicated a piece that could be exhibited in a gallery setting, displacing natural materials from their original sites with accompanying drawings or photographs. "Site" referred to those works created outside the gallery infrastructure in site-specific locales with materials taken from that location. Smithson's iteration of these new frameworks along with the activist mentality of the late 1960s underscored the interest of some Earth artists in socially engaged art that explored humans' relationship with the land (soon evolving into the related, but independent Environmental Art movement). For many artists, this was a conscious movement away from Greenbergian modernism that instead stressed art's lack of connection to the mundane world.

Decay

Earth artists were influenced by prehistoric and ancient monuments such as Stonehenge and Native American burial mounds that were monumental in size and scale. Heizer experienced these prehistoric sites firsthand as a child, visiting various excavations with his father, who was an archaeologist. The prehistoric monuments, by means of their continued existence incorporated the passage of time through natural decay and erosion. The entropy of the materials, which were both manmade and organic, was integral to Earthworks. The pieces created outdoors by the likes of Smithson and Heizer were naturally subjected to the depredations of the elements so that decay and disintegration were part of their meaning; preservation was understood as a conceit.

Invasive and Non-invasive

Earthworks are sometimes divided into those works that make great changes to the landscape and those that do not. Works in the former category generally require earth-moving equipment to make massive alterations to a site, such as Robert Heizer's Double Negative (1969-70). Those works that are non-invasive and are seen as more respectful to the land include Richard Long's A Line Made by Walking (1967), along with pieces by Andy Goldsworthy and Alan Sonfist.

Later Developments - After Earth Art

During the mid-1970s, the recession impacted the funding of Earth art dramatically. Many artists were dependent on patrons to purchase expensive tracts of land to complete large-scale work. In addition to the economic slump, Robert Smithson's sudden death in 1973 while surveying possible sites in Texas changed the momentum of the movement. Those who established their names through Earth art, such as De Maria, Heizer, Morris, and Andre, took their careers in other directions, reorienting their production to accommodate institutional and gallery spaces. De Maria's New York Earth Room (1977) was executed in 1977 and several international iterations were created. Heizer would also create gallery-appropriate works, reconfiguring notions of site-specificity to adapt to art world institutions. Along with other postwar Conceptual artists, Earth artists ushered in a new period of art that favored installations over discrete objects, challenging the expectations of artistic production.

The tenets of Conceptualism became dominant in the art world during this period, as many movements began to share ideas and encourage artists working in multiple institutional frameworks. Post-Minimalist movements such as Process art were strongly connected to Earth art, and many artists working between the movements would shift towards the gallery model as the economy weakened and cheap alternative spaces became available in urban locales. Conceptual art also ushered in an era of performance that translated well in gallery settings and, like Earth art, challenged traditional notions of art as a commodity because of its transitory nature. Organic materials were sometimes utilized within the gallery space, and an emphasis on the ephemeral was understood through site-specific and temporary installations.

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The late 1960s and 1970s was one of the most experimental periods in the history of Western art with many concurrent movements and artists working simultaneously in more than one style, making it sometimes difficult to definitively attach stylistic labels to works from the period.

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Land art reflects other ideas of existentialism, the ability of the human to control the environment, yet at other times, fail to control it. This is reflected in land art themes of 'entropy' the the condition of decreasing organization or deteriorating order, and creation. (Pearson 39.2)

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

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Robert Smithson's works escaped the gallery and conventional means of displaying art. His pieces changed throughout time, and contained environmental messages. He stated “Across the country there are many mining areas, disused quarries, and polluted lakes and rivers. One practical solution for the utilization of such devastated places would be land and water re-cycling in terms of ‘Earth Art.’” His reclamation project at the Bingham Copper mine reflects these ideas. (see link below)

Robert Smithson, Bingham Copper Mining Pit—Utah / Reclamation Project, 1973

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photographs: A Decade of Collecting," June 5, 2001-September 4, 2001.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 32," May 14, 2002-September 8, 2003.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. "Robert Smithson," September 12, 2004-December 13, 2004.

Dallas Museum of Art. "Robert Smithson," January 13, 2005-April 3, 2005.

Whitney Museum of American Art. "Robert Smithson," June 25, 2005-October 23, 2005.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Land Marks," April 30-August 25, 2013.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Poetics of Place: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection," December 12, 2016-May 29, 2017.

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Robert Smithson | Bingham Copper Mining Pit-Utah / Reclamation Project | The Met

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photographs: A Decade of Collecting," June 5, 2001-September 4, 2001. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 32," May 14, 2002-September 8, 2003. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. "Robert Smithson," September 12, 2004-December 13, 2004. Dallas Museum of Art.

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Some land artists such as Andy Goldsworthy searched to emphasize the fragility of nature and the respect they held for it. Goldsworthy, a British artist, made pieces like Hazel Leaves and a similar film Rivers and Tides (2001), that showed works formed from all-natural materials. He often explores the energy and balance of nature, fragility of materials, and the temporary nature of his creations.

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Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy working with time (OmU) - Trailer

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One of the most famous pieces of land art was Spiral Jetty, a large spiral form created from rocks and dirt on the Great Salt Lake in Utah by Smithson in 1970. He filmed his art with themes of entropy and creation, the spiral reflecting symbols seen in the universe such as a snail shell or whirlpool, while keeping tension between motion vs. stasis, life vs. death, and contraction vs. expansion.
(Pearson 39.2)

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty 1970.

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Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: Work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

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Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: Work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

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This team of artists made site specific, free range, and large scale art typical of the land art movement. More specifically, their art showed fragility of the human experience through art that left virtually minimal to no footprint behind. The nearly five-year project Running Fence made of nylon fabric hung from steel was 24.5 miles long,  a white banner of freedom sprawled over the hills of California. They proclaimed, “This project is entirely designed for that specific landscape and nothing can be transported. 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.” (Pearson 39.2)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence 1976