Broken Ground: New Directions in Land Art

Curator Jeff Beekman states that Land Art, one of the seminal movements beginning in the late-1960s was largely born out of a frustration with the growing commercialization of the art world and the limitations of the traditional white cube gallery. At its core this movement sought to tie together artwork and the landscape into which the works were inextricably merged. The most well-known early examples took the form of dramatic interventions into the landscapes of primarily the American Southwest. What has emerged since the formative years has become a sophisticated and varied extension of the discussions of the early practitioners. This movement has grown to encompass issues of ecology and sustainability, an exploration of how human and natural forces have shaped one another in historical and contemporary landscapes, and an exploration of past approaches to the mythologies we have about land, particularly as it relates to the concept of manifest destiny and borders.