© Richard Long

Richard Long, "A Line in Scotland" (1981). C-print, 35 x 49 in.

November 2009 Reviews

Target Practice

The Audio Show

Dorothy Iannone

Anton Vidokle

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Walid Raad

Song Dong

Richard Long Japan Art Association Honors Zaha Hadid Richard Long London Gallery Stroll Many Splendid Things One-Bed Uffizi Gemma Holt A Different Kind of Art Fair

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"Heaven and Earth," the retrospective of English artist Richard Long's work appearing at the Tate Britain last summer, was a slow, meditative amble through a career that has spanned four decades. The calm, almost sterile environment of the galleries framed the simple and straightforward works beautifully, emphasizing their relationship to the natural world. The exhibition demonstrated the evolution of Long’s work and his success at making walks into art.

The photographs, mostly black-and-white, depict transient sculptures dating to his early career, such as his seminal A Line Made by Walking (1967), plus places as near as Exmoor and Dartmoor, in the U.K., and as far off as the Himalayas, Alaska, and the Sahara. Many of the photos are accompanied by notations indicating travel times, map references, and distances. Later on, in such text works as Walking Music (2004) and Dartmoor Time (1996), Long reveals more intimate details, like songs that accompanied him on his solitary treks and wildlife he encountered along the way.

The most compelling creations were the floor sculptures, of which six — made of pieces of flint, slate, and basalt — were installed in the airy central gallery, arranged in grand geometric shapes. The variations between them were subtle yet striking: a ring of white stones (Norfolk Flint Circle, 1990), a sober straight row of slate (Stone Line, 1980), a precisely placed circle of basalt (Basalt Ellipse, 2000), and a lighthearted play on color (Black White Blue Purple Circle, 1998).

"Richard Long" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' November 2009 Table of Contents.