LAND ART
What do you think of when you hear the term “ landscape art ”, maybe John Constable ’ s “ The Haywain ” or Claude Lorrain ’ s “ Ideal View of Tivoli ”? When you hear the term “ modern art ”, perhaps you think of Tracey Emin ’ s bed or Carl Andre ’ s pile of bricks ( Equivalent VIII ) in the Tate Museum ? Would that term make you think of landscape gardening , or sky watching , or piling pebbles ? Do you think of nature inspired art or of nature which is art ?
A new movement in modern art harks back to the most ancient instinct to create art within nature . It isn ' t available for sale and you won ' t find it in a normal art gallery , instead you need to seek it out , and in doing so find new insights into art and into nature itself . Land Art doesn ’ t just represent nature ; it uses it and creates with it .
For centuries we have shaped the landscape to our requirements . Alexander Pope wrote that all gardening is landscape painting . However , where once we shaped nature to make it lovelier , epitomised in “ classical ” gardens like Stowe , nowadays land art takes things a lot further , offering unique points of view on what art is .
landscape gardening to new extremes .
However , for many , land art is more subtle and ephemeral , working with nature in a partnership that enhances what already exists or leaves no lasting impact on the environment .
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation , Portrack in Dumfrieshire by Charles Jencks , may initially look like somewhere the Teletubbies lived , but it is a serious work of art , covering 30 acres . It celebrates nature through a mixture of garden and architecture based on astronomy , fractals and wave forms . www . charlesjencks . com /#! the-garden-of-cosmicspeculation All Jencks ’ works capture natural form and express it in stylised landscapes , taking
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