England 1968

• Artist

  Richard Long
• Inspiration

  1960s conceptual and land art movements.
• Style + Purpose

  Within his conceptual artwork, instead of representing nature, Long uniquely uses nature as the artwork itself.
• Medium

  Black and white photograph, depicting an “X” shape.
• How did he create it?

  Long hand-picked the heads of daises in a field in his hometown of Bristol
• How does he conform to style? - Discuss the x shape

  Artwork upholds a sense of ambiguity as the two diagonal lines may represent: a kiss, Christianity or even St George’s cross.

  
• How does he express his contempt? For what?MTP ish

  Point: Long effectively expresses contempt for not only the money-focused art-world, but also capitalism within society as well.

  
  

  Reasoning: Achieves this by contrasting western traditional representations of landscape. Does not highlight human domination over nature & instead allows nature to express itself with reduced human impact through the impermanence of the piece - daises will grow back due to first-hand material.

  
  

  Effect: Creating a sense of harmony.
• Through showing the impermanence of piece, what does he recall? & CT

  Pre historic forms of land art such as the Uffington White Horse or even the Peruvian Nazca Lines.

  
  

  These ideas presented within the artwork are supported by Richard Long himself who stated that he “works for the land, not against it”.
• Give conclusion

  Long’s success as a conceptualist and even performance artist as well is demonstrated through the fact that he has been short listed for the Turner Prize four time & his high profile shows such as ‘Heaven and Earth’ was exhibited in the Tate Britain in 2009.