ART-PRESENTATION: Richard Long

Almost 50 years ago, while he was still a student at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art, Richard Long set off to hitchhike home to Bristol. Somewhere in the middle of the countryside he stopped, found a field, and walked up and down in the damp grass. He took a photograph of the resulting track, which he called “A Line Made by Walking” (1967), and with this simple act broke free from the confines of the gallery, and from the constraints of traditional sculpture.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Judd Foundation Archive

For most of his career Long has used natural materials to make his works: stones arranged on the floors of galleries or mud applied directly to the walls. In the ‘70s he began making sculptures using River Avon mud. Two large-scale terracotta works by Richard Long are on presentation at Judd Foundation in New York., by applying mud directly to the walls, which are nearly 18 meter long. The installation is part of an ongoing series that aims to highlight and contextualize the interrelated aspects of Judd’s work and that of his contemporaries. Judd Furniture, writings from the Donald Judd Archives, and selections from the Donald Judd Library in Marfa, Texas are accompaning the installation. Donald Judd had great admiration for Richard Long’s radical work which, much like his own work, defies traditional conventions of form and medium, he described Richard Long as “The best artist in Europe” and “A far better artist than Bacon or Henry Moore”. In 1988, after an exhibition in Reykjavik, Iceland, Judd acquired and permanently installed Long’s work, “Sea Lava Circles”, made from volcanic rock collected by Long while in Iceland, at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. The work is located on a concrete platform that was previously used as a tennis court.

Info: Curator: Flavin Judd, Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, New York, Duration: 1/10-17/12/16, Days & Hours: Thu-Sat 10:00-17:30, http://juddfoundation.org