Richard Long
Richard Long was born in 1945 in Bristol, UK, and studied at the West of England College of Art before continuing his studies at St. Martin's School of Art and Design in London in 1966. Long represented Britain in the British Pavilion at the 1976 Venice Biennale and received the Turner Prize in 1989. Considered one of Britain's most important land artists, known for his permanent and transitional works in a variety of mediums that address the complex relationship between man and nature, Richard Long's works have extended the possibilities of sculpture beyond traditional materials and methods.
Central to Long's work is the activity of walking. Since the mid-1960s he has taken countless walks around the world, in places such as the Sahara Desert, Australia, Iceland, and near his home in Bristol, UK. The walks bring together physical endurance and principles of order, action and idea. These walks and temporary works of passage are recorded with photographs, maps and texts, where measurements of time and distance, place names and phenomena are the vocabulary for both original ideas and powerful condensed narratives.
From these walks emerge the idea and material for his works. Long's sculptures usually take the form of geometric shapes-circles, lines, ellipses and spirals-and are often composed of minerals native to the place where they are located or to the British countryside that Long has walked. Similarly, he sources mud and soil from his expeditions for use in performance paintings made on canvas or directly on the wall.
Central to Long's work is the activity of walking. Since the mid-1960s he has taken countless walks around the world, in places such as the Sahara Desert, Australia, Iceland, and near his home in Bristol, UK. The walks bring together physical endurance and principles of order, action and idea. These walks and temporary works of passage are recorded with photographs, maps and texts, where measurements of time and distance, place names and phenomena are the vocabulary for both original ideas and powerful condensed narratives.
From these walks emerge the idea and material for his works. Long's sculptures usually take the form of geometric shapes-circles, lines, ellipses and spirals-and are often composed of minerals native to the place where they are located or to the British countryside that Long has walked. Similarly, he sources mud and soil from his expeditions for use in performance paintings made on canvas or directly on the wall.