Richard Long is a British artist who works in such fields as sculpture, installation, painting and photography. He represents conceptual art and the land art by using the natural materials in his creations which are also often chased in form of photography, texts or maps.
Background
Richard Long was born on June 2, 1945, in Bristol, United Kingdom. He is a son of Maurice Long and Frances Carpenter.
He revealed the interest in nature and art since the childhood. He liked to walk for hours and contemplate the beauty of nature.
Young Richard often painted before classes and designed the set decorations for the school plays. His parents encouraged their son in his passion for art – so, when he was a thirteen-year-old boy, they allowed him to produce a mural in the family dining room.
Education
Richard Long began his artistic education at the University of the West of England in Bristol where he entered in 1962. During his three-year stint at the institution, he showed his endless love for sport and nature – he led the cross-country running team.
A year after graduation, Richard came to London and enrolled at Saint Martin's School of Art (currently the part of the Central School of Art and Design) where he had been taught by Anthony Caro and Phillip King. One of the artist’s classmates was Hamish Fulton.
Richard Long made one of his first land artworks in 1967 by simply walking on the grass for several times to create a straight line from his steps. Photographed and called Line Made by Walking, it marked the beginning of Richard’s extended artistic journey related to unusual forms of painting or sculpture.
The debut solo exhibition of the artist was organized by the notable German gallerist Konrad Fischer in 1968 in Düsseldorf. So, the young artist received his popularity abroad faster, than in his homeland – his art was demonstrated alongside such well-known artists as the performer Josef Beuys, Lawrence Weiner and the minimalist Carl Andre. The latter admired the artworks of Long and introduced them to the New York City public.
The debut show was followed the next year by the prestigious group exhibition of Arte Povera in Italy and solo expositions in the Museum Haus Lange of Krefeld, Germany, at the Parish Galerie Yvon Lambert, at the Galerie Lambert in Milan and in New York City.
Richard Long spent the first money earned from the sale of his art for the travel to Africa where he produced a series of work at the top of the mountain Kilimanjaro.
Since then, such trips became regular providing the artist with the ideas and material for his installations and sculptures.
Except photography and texts which reflects Long’s itineraries, the artist adopted other physical forms to exhibit his art. So, in 1970, he produced a walk in a form of spiral wearing muddy boots at the Dwan Gallery in New York City.
In 1976, Richard Long represented the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale.
In fact, the installations by Richard Long were shown all over the world, including Planet Circle of 1991 at the Museum De Pont in Tilburg, Netherlands, Heaven and Earth retrospective of 2009 in the Tate Gallery in London, White Water Falls of 2012 in the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia and other exhibitions in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, United States, Switzerland, Ireland, Japan, Greece, Canada, and Sweden.
One of the recent solo shows was organized in 2018 at the Lisson Gallery in London.
Richard Long is currently living and working in his hometown of Bristol, United Kingdom.
Richard Long is an accomplished sculptor and performance artist who became a pioneer of the Environmental Art in the late 1960s.
His art is recognized all over the world and was marked by many prestigious awards like Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Praemium Imperiale and Turner Prize. He was the only person nominated the latter four times in 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1989. Moreover, the artist obtained a title of Sir and Knight Bachelor.
The Marquess of Cholmondeley commissioned Richard Long to produce a sculpture for his house at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, United Kingdom.
The artist’s artworks are in the permanent collections of such well-known galleries and museums like Tate Modern in London, the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, and in many galleries in the United States, Switzerland and Australia.
The artworks of Richard Long are popular among the art collectors. So, his Whitechapel Slate Circle of 1981 was bought for $209,000 at Sotheby's in New York in 1989.
Through his natural but meaningful artworks, Richard Long reflects the beauty of nature, its fragility and the history of the human relationship to the environment.
According to the artist, the viewer shouldn’t perceive the artwork as the piece of art, but the acts of the author of the creation are artistic.
Quotations:
"The speed of the hand gestures is important because that's what makes the splashes, which shows the wateriness of the mud, and water is the main subject and content of these works, they show its nature."
"I guess I'm an opportunist, really. I go out into the world with an open mind, and I rely to a degree on intuition and chance. The idea of making art out of nothing, I've got a lot of time for that."
"My art is the essence of my experience, not a representation of it."
"My talent as an artist is to walk across a moor or place a stone on the ground."
"My work has become a simple metaphor of life. A figure walking down his road, making his mark. It is an affirmation of my human scale and senses."
Membership
Royal Academy of Arts
,
United Kingdom
December 5, 2001
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Master artist of the earth taken as a living entity." Carl Andre, a painter
Interests
nature, walks, travelling
Connections
Richard Long married his girlfriend named Denise Johnston whom he had met at the art school. The wedding ceremony took place in Kenya during their trip to Africa in 1969. The newlyweds stood on different sides of the equator. The family produced two daughters named Betsy and Tamsin.
Later, Richard and Denise divorced.
Nowadays, Richard Long is living with his partner Denise Hooker, writer and art historian.
