Collection Online as of September 30, 2023
Thirty-Seven Campfires, Mexico (Two friends on a thirteen day walk...)
Part of a set. See all set records
Richard Long
(British, 1945-)
Gelatin silver print
Image: 48 x 71.1 cm (18 7/8 x 28 in.)
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1995.30.c
© Artists Right Society (ARS), New York
Location
not on view
Description
Richard Long's photographs are simple and direct, drawing on his perceptions of nature as encountered on long walking trips. His art embodies the essence of his experience, not a visual representation of it, and so it signals a radical departure from traditional landscape depictions. The three prints comprising Thirty-Seven Campfires, Mexico record the wild terrain around the Rio Urique in the Mexican mountain range of Sierra Tarahumara, which Long and a friend explored on a six-day walking tour in 1987.
Richard Long
Richard Long British, 1945 -
Richard Long derives inspiration from his interaction with nature, experiencing the land through the English tradition of walking. He collects materials from these ventures,stones, willow branches, seaweed,and incorporates them into his on-site sculpture, often in arrangements such as a circle, spiral, line, or cross that conjure ancient patterns. Using his camera to document these temporary sculptures, Long explores the themes of transformation, the ephemerality of human existence on the land, and notions of time, place, and movement. Long's photographs record the transient aspects of his art-making process and address human presence through implication rather than direct representation.
Long, who lives in his native Bristol, studied at the Bristol School of Art (1962) and St. Martin's School of Art, London (1966-68). He has been at the forefront of contemporary art for the past 25 years, with many one-person exhibitions throughout Europe, Australia, the United States, and Canada. In addition to his photographic triptych, the Cleveland Museum of Art owns a Long sculpture. A.W.