Largely born out of a frustration with the growing commercialization of the art world and the limitations the traditional “white cube” gallery offered as site for experiencing works of art, at its core the Land Art movement sought to tie together artwork and the landscape into which the works were inextricably merged. The advent of feminist critique in the 1970s and identity politics of the 1980s correctly recognized the predominance of white male voices at the forefront of this movement, and also justifiably questioned the hubris involved in making immense, aggressive marks on the landscape as a means for individual artistic expression. A more robust understanding of the fragility of our shared ecosystems since the late-1960s has further rendered many of the practices employed by these early practitioners critically suspect.

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Still, what has emerged since Land Art's formative years has not so much been a denouncement, but instead a sophisticated and varied extension of the discourses promoted by these early practitioners. The exhibition Broken Ground: New Directions in Land Art sought to explore this evolution - from a largely coherent set of practice in the late 1960's, to an incredibly diverse range of explorations by a new generation of artists.

 

Contributing essays were provided by William L. Fox and Dan Torop. Fox is a prolific author, Guggenheim Fellow, and Founding Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. Torop is an Associate Professor of Photography at Cornell University and coeditor of ASMR4.

A print version of the Broken Ground exhibition catalog is available for purchase through the University Press of Florida. An electronic version is available by clicking the above image.