Richard Long

A Line Made by Walking

1967

© Richard Long

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In Tate Liverpool

Ideas Depot: Ideas Depot

Free entry
Artist
Richard Long born 1945
Medium
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper and graphite on board
Dimensions
Image: 375 x 324 mm
framed: 623 x 826 x 26 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1976
Reference
P07149

Display caption

This formative piece was made on one of Long’s journeys to St Martin’s from his home in Bristol. Between hitchhiking lifts, he stopped in a field in Wiltshire where he walked backwards and forwards until the flattened turf caught the sunlight and became visible as a line. He photographed this work, and recorded his physical interventions within the landscape.
Although this artwork underplays the artist’s corporeal presence, it anticipates a widespread interest in performative art practice. This piece demonstrates how Long had already found a visual language for his lifelong concerns with impermanence, motion and relativity.

Gallery label, May 2007

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Land art Conceptual photography

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