Artist Birthday: Richard Long

Richard Long has been a committed environmental artist since Land Art had its beginnings in the 1960s. His works are thoughtful, beautifully arranged, and elegantly simple compositions that reflect his reverence for Nature. In the 1960s and 1970s, Land Art was called “Earthworks”.

Artist birthday for 2 June: Richard Long (born 1945, Britain)

Richard Long is a pioneer in the field of Land Art, art that involves working closely with elements of nature, both outdoors and in gallery spaces.

Richard Long, Limestone Circle, 1985. 31 pieces of limestone, diameter: 279.4 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art. © 2025 Richard Long / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. (PMA-9365ldars)

Long's installed Land Art consistently employs the archetypal shapes found in nature—cross, line, circle and spiral. Often, these shapes evoke the sense of Neolithic monumental stone formations. Because circles have been the basis of art from cultures around the world, Long's connection of geometric structures in his work with organic elements crosses generational and cultural boundaries.

Unlike most of his circular installations that are randomly arranged, Limestone Circle is a carefully formed circle. However, each time it is displayed, the only parameters are of displaying it in an almost 3 meter (9 foot) radius with no space between each of the stones. The size of the stones is random. Without pedestal or base, the force of Long's work comes from its monumental simplicity. Like Conceptual artists, Lond has sought to redefine the limits of a work of art, using different verbal and visual and verbal systems. The stones are carefully cut so as to resemble as closely as possible the rock in its natural state.

In the late 1960s, many artists were impacted by the dramatic scale and physical impact of Minimalism. They also responded to the ideas of Conceptualism which sought to eliminate the distinction between art and life. With the advent of the environmental movement during the same period, some artists sought to remove art from the gallery and society fixing it in uninhabited nature. These often-permanent works are known as Land- or Earthworks.

Because many of these remote pieces were unavailable to the general public, it was mostly through documentation that they became known. Ironically, the maps, drawings and photographs of these projects often became fine art objects in gallery settings. Although Land and Earth artists escaped the mundane nature of the gallery circuit art world, they were, in the wilderness as it were, heavily dependent on engineers, construction crews, and earth-moving equipment.

Some Earth and Land artist bring their encounters in nature into gallery settings, desiring to bring their closeness to the landscape into the gallery setting for people to view. Richard Long, born in Bristol, has been closely associated with the emergence of Land Art since he was in school at Saint Martin's School of Art and Design in London (1966-1968). His art has evolved out of his habit of taking long walks in undisturbed areas of the countryside or coast. His first piece, executed while he was in school—A Line Made Walking—was just that: a line he made walking back and forth in tall grass.

Long's reverence and respect for nature were obvious in his outdoor Land works of the 1970s. The result of both arbitrary and predetermined walks, Long made sure that he never made significant alterations to the landscapes through which he passed, preferring to leave simple traces. The process of walking and discovering, and the respectful aesthetic dictate his indoor works.