Richard Long Exhibition - London

An article on the land-artist Richard Long appeared in the Independent a few days ago. Apparently he is going to be having a show at Tate Britain from June onwards. This is very exciting news in my view, though I had up to now believed that he was the sort of artist that wouldn't be able to have shows. This turns out to be incorrect

I first came across Richard Long when reading a lot about "Land art" after this had been featured in Robert Hughes's excellent tv series "The Shock of the New". This had included a long sequence on Walter De Maria's "The Lightning Field" and the whole idea of land art had really got me hooked.

Walter De Maria, Lightning Field, New Mexico, 1977

Some years later, Lee Renaldo released a solo cd "Amarillo Ramp - for Robert Smithson". Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" is another of my favorite pieces and I was really tempted to go and see it when a draught a few years ago briefly allowed it to re-appear. Is it still visible?

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, Utah, 1970

Richard Long made his art around a series of walks and the art he created on these walks. Much of his work is, like Goldsworthy's, rather fleeting. It is often located in remote areas and might not even look like art if you happened to stumble across it. I found this entire concept deeply satisfying. Art that no one will ever see - like the Chinese musicians who played in forests to no audience, or Han Shan's "Cold Mountain Poems"

So I have been re-reading some books on Land Art and, as an anniversary present, Linda bought me Long's "Walking the Line" from the art bookshop in Oxford.

What a treat - I can hardly wait for the London show

Perhaps Long's most well-known work - "A line made by walking"

A circle in the Andes

A circle in Nepal

A circle in Alaska

Six circles in a forest