Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Contemporary Art

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the Land Art of the 1960s and 1970s engaged the earth as both medium and site, foregrounding the ways in which artists constructed experiences of connection to the natural world. It focuses specifically on the practices of Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson and Richard Long, who each emerged as central figures during this period, turning to the earth itself as their primary material and rejecting traditional, commodifiable forms of art. For these artists, earthworks functioned not only as a critique of the social and political conditions of the time but also as an innovative way of re-engaging a landscape that had been represented for centuries in art, transforming its role from subject to medium.

My study situates Land Art within broader historical and cultural frameworks, tracing its inheritances from prehistoric ritual and Romanticism, while also locating it in a dialogue with contemporaneous movements such as Minimalism and Conceptualism. Particular attention is given to how Heizer, Smithson and Long absorbed and transformed these influences, forging practices that challenged conventional definitions of art and reshaped the terms of artistic experience in their time.

Throughout my dissertation, the central focus remains the experience of connection to the land, both as articulated by the artists themselves and as encountered by their audiences. Organising each chapter around a single allows me to highlight their distinct concerns and influences while examining how these informed the conceptual and material dimensions of their practice. Collectively, the study demonstrates the plurality within Land Art, demonstrating how Heizer, Smithson and Long each reconfigured the relationship between art, landscape and human presence in significantly different ways.

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