Land and Environmental art
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People have been manipulating and shaping their environment since pre-historic times. Stone circles, megaliths and cairns are just some examples of previous responses to the natural world in which we live. The most recent development of this most ancient art form has been termed Land or Environment Art.
This essay seeks to investigate the reasons for this new interest in natural art, look at the main contributors before concentrating on Andy Goldsworthy as a prominent artist in this field.
The modern Land Art movement first appeared in the 1960s as part of a wider creative movement which also included Performance Art and Process Art. There appears to be several factors contributing to the rekindling of interest in these forms of expression at this time. In the first instance, post war industrial expansion and the steam roller effect of the capitalist economies of the west had, in the opinion of some artists, threatened the very existence of nature, both in demand for raw materials and in the insatiable demand for land. Secondly, some believed cultural and scientific developments where threatening to "enslave" nature, (Le Normand-Romain et al, 1986). Thirdly, artists were seeking to move away from more traditional landscape painting to seek something new, something not directly commissioned with an agenda or social purpose to perform. They were keen to move away from the 18th century idea that the landscape could be regarded as "civilised" and "controlled"...