Earthworks And Beyond by John Beardsley
This book begins with an enlightening introduction tracing the historical roots of art in the landscape: Stonehenge, Indian mounds, cliff dwellings, park design from 18th-century England to modern-day golf courses. The opening chapter deals with such innovative artists as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, and Christo, who in the 1960s began to free their art from the confines of tradition by constructing monumental sculptures in the environment. The following chapters discuss their predecessors, peers, and successors, including Constantin Brancusi, Herbert Bayer, Richard Long, James Turrell, and many others. The final four chapters (chapter 7 is entirely new) explore at length the increasing involvement of artists in land reclamation and urban design, featuring projects by Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, Mel Chin, Maya Lin, and many others.
This thoughtful volume is very well illustrated and provides a context for understanding the achievements of a highly diverse range of artistic endeavor.. Highly recommended. -- Artforum John Beardsley is a superb guide to this burgeoning and sometimes baffling branch of the art world... His observations have a polished simplicity and he fortifies his narrative with details that have eluded other writers... Beardsley offers the best account of the earthworks movement yet published. -- Landscape Architecture Indispensable... By the time one reads the last chapter, "The Greening of Sculpture," one sees that the ancient role of artists as technologists and innovators has reopened in the relatively new tradition of earthworks and public sculpture... The complex field of contemporary site-specific sculpture gains clarity with the categories Beardsley outlines... Beardsleys' analysis is unpretentious, clear-eyed, and open. -- Rain Taxi Review of Books; Fall, 2006
John Beardsley,who lives near Washington, D.C., is an independent scholar, curator, and writer whose other books include Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists as well as the coauthored Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980 and Hispanic Art in the United States. He has taught in landscape architecture programs at the University of Virginia, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780789208811 |
| ISBN 10 | 0789208814 |
| Title | Earthworks And Beyond |
| Author | John Beardsley |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S. |
| Year published | 2006-06-15 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |