Richard Long

Bristol, England, 1945 -

BiographyRichard Long was born June 2, 1945, in Bristol, England. He studied at West of England College of Art, Bristol, between 1962 and 1965. By 1964, Long was already making Earthworks and experimenting with the idea of impermanence, a theme that would inform his work throughout his career. Long’s use of walking as an art form was introduced as early as 1967. From 1966 to 1968, he studied at the St. Martin’s School of Art, London, under Anthony Caro and Phillip King. While there, he became closely associated with fellow student Hamish Fulton.Long had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf in 1968 and just a year later Long was showing in Paris, Milan, and New York. Also in 1969, Long was included in a seminal exhibition of Minimalist and Conceptual works entitled When Attitude Becomes Form at the Kunsthalle Bern. The artist made his first word-work for that exhibition. After 1969, Long created environmental works all around the world, documenting his walks with texts, maps, and photographs. As Long began exhibiting more frequently, he was forced to confront the relationship between his walking and the presentation of his work in a gallery. In 1970, at the Dwan Gallery in New York, Long walked a spiral on the floor with boots muddied from the soil of England. In 1971, he participated in the Guggenheim International Award exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and in 1972 exhibited in the Projects gallery at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. That same year, and again in 1982, Long was invited to participate in Documenta in Kassel. The artist exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and again in 1980.In the 1980s, Long began making new types of mud works using handprints applied directly to the wall. He also constructed large lines and circles of stones, slate, and sticks, often collected on his walks or, in later years, from locations near the exhibition sites. In 1986, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized a major exhibition of Long’s work from the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, Long was given a solo exhibition at Neue Galerie—Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, in conjunction with his receipt of the Kunstpreis Aachen. In 1989, he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in London. The Hayward Gallery, London, organized an exhibition of Long’s work in 1991. The artist currently lives in Bristol.--from Guggenheim website

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