A Line Made by Walking
{{italic title}}
{{short description|Artwork by Richard Long}}
A Line Made by Walking is a 1967 sculpture by British artist Richard Long. The piece was made when Long walked a continuous line into a field of grass in Wiltshire, England, and then photographed the result.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/may/23/richard-long-photography-tate-britain |title = Walk the Line |newspaper = The Guardian|date = 22 May 2009|last1 = Macfarlane |first1 = Robert}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Cole |editor-first1=Ina |title=“From the Sculptor’s Studio”, conversation with Richard Long, held in 2015, 2017 and 2020 |year=2021 |publisher=Laurence King Publishing Ltd |page=146-159|isbn=9781913947590 |oclc=1420954826}} The work is considered to be an important early work in the history of both land art and conceptual art.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KH1LAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long+photograph+performance | title=The Pleasures of Good Photographs: Essays| isbn=9781597111393| year=2010| last1=Badger| first1=Gerry}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1lwlwQLyGK4FR0lTPTklBh9/i-walk-the-line-how-richard-long-turns-epic-journeys-into-art |title = BBC Arts - BBC Arts - I walk the line: How Richard Long turns epic journeys into art|date=10 May 2018}} It has been described as among Long's signature works, and as his "best-known early piece".Art in America, Volume 75 (1987), page 163.
History
A Line Made by Walking was made in 1967 when Long was a 22-year-old art student at Saint Martin's School of Art, London.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oRIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long | title=Richard Long: A Line Made by Walking| isbn=9781846380600| last1=Roelstraete| first1=Dieter| year=2010}} At the time, Long commuted regularly between his home in Bristol and the school, a journey of around 120 miles. Stopping in Wiltshire,{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GL9IBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long&pg=PA185 |title = Raw: Architectural Engagements with Nature|isbn = 9781472421005|last1 = Faber|first1 = Dr Hege Charlotte|last2 = Strandhagen|first2 = Brit|last3 = Bøe|first3 = Dr Solveig|date = 2014-10-31}} he found a grassy area and walked a straight path in it repeatedly until a line was visible. He then took a black and white photograph of the result.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTjmDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long&pg=PA119 |title = Walks of a Lifetime: Extraordinary Hikes from Around the World|isbn = 9781493026425|last1 = Manning|first1 = Robert|last2 = Manning|first2 = Martha|date = May 2017}}
The work was considered innovative at the time as it proposed that the simple act of walking could be an art form,{{Cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jun/15/richard-long-swinging-60s-interview |title = Richard Long: 'It was the swinging 60s. To be walking lines in fields was a bit different'|newspaper = The Guardian|date = 2012-06-15|last1 = Higgins|first1 = Charlotte}} and that art could be produced by the foot as well as the hand. The piece also questioned whether the performance – or the document of the performance – was the actual artwork.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfMNDX8VIj4C&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long&pg=PA270 |title = Wanderlust: A History of Walking|isbn = 9781101199558|last1 = Solnit|first1 = Rebecca|date = June 2001}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=30aZCI2gKA8C&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long+photograph+performance&pg=PT73 |title = The Past is the Present; It's the Future Too: The Temporal Turn in Contemporary Art|isbn = 9781441147745|last1 = Ross|first1 = Christine|date = 2012-06-28}} As such it presented a challenge to what was traditionally understood to be as sculpture.{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=No8xAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long+photograph+performance | title=New Statesman| year=2009}} The work, which set the tone for Long's career as an artist,{{Cite journal | url=http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ijcs/ijcs15-07.htm |title = Richard Long's Passage as Line: Measuring Toward the Horizon|journal = Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies|volume = 15|issue = 1|pages = 103–116|year = 2014|last1 = Dapena-Tretter|first1 = Antonia|doi = 10.17077/2168-569X.1443|doi-access = free}} was one of his earliest pieces{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoVIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long |title = The Art of Richard Long: Complete Works|isbn = 9781861711878|last1 = Malpas|first1 = William|year = 2007}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=675ZDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long&pg=PA968 |title = Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography, Lynne Warren: Photography|isbn = 9781579583934|date = 2006-05-16}} and his first walking-based piece.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=069rL6vA1BAC&dq=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long&pg=PA591 | title=Art of the 20th Century| isbn=9783822859070| last1=Ruhrberg| first1=Karl| last2=Honnef| first2=Klaus| last3=Fricke| first3=Christiane| last4=Schneckenburger| first4=Manfred| year=2000}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R95PAAAAMAAJ&q=%22A+Line+Made+by+Walking%22+richard+long |title = Richard Long: Circles, cycles, mud, stones|last1 = Brettell|first1 = Richard R.|last2 = Friis-Hansen|first2 = Dana|publisher = Contemporary Arts Museum|year = 1996|isbn = 9780936080383}}{{Cite web | url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/long-richard-1945 |title = Richard Long | Artists | Collection | British Council − Visual Arts}} In the context of Long's career, A Line Made by Walking manifested the artist's fascination with trails and traces as mapped histories, a very prevalent theme in his work.{{cite journal |last1=Haldane |first1=John |title=Richard Long. Edinburgh |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=October 2007 |volume=149 |issue=1255 |pages=723–724 |jstor=20075034 }}{{cite web |last1=Haas |first1=Phillip |title=Stones and Flies. Richard Long in the Sarah |url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3346863?ssotoken=anonymous |website=Alexander Street |accessdate=6 December 2019}}
A Line Made by Walking established Long as a minimalist and conceptual sculptor; it was also an early example of land art.{{Cite web|url=https://publicdelivery.org/richard-long-line-made-by-walking/|title=Artist Richard Long's groundbreaking A line made by walking|date=2019-08-20|website=Public Delivery|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-07}} Long created several pieces which hark back to the 1967 original including circles or organic paths, some in snow, dust, or even charred grass.{{cite web|url=http://www.richardlong.org/sculptures.html|title=Sculptures|website=Richard Long|accessdate=6 December 2019}} These include Walking a Line in Peru (1972), a narrow path walked across a wide plain, leading to the foothills of distant mountains; A Line and Tracks in Bolivia (1981), approximately 150 feet long with accompanying tracks intersecting; Sea Level Waterline in Death Valley, California (1982), a path walked at the zero foot contour, representing sea level in low-lying Death Valley; and A Line in Nepal (1983), a forest path approximately 50 feet long.
Collections
The work is held in the collections of the Tate Museum, London,{{Cite web | url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-made-by-walking-p07149 |title = 'A Line Made by Walking', Richard Long, 1967}} the Courtald Gallery,{{Cite web|url=http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/cb14c7ad.html|title=A&A | A Line Made By Walking|website=www.artandarchitecture.org.uk}} the Getty Museum{{Cite web | url=http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/258504/richard-long-a-line-made-by-walking-english-negative-1967-print-mid-1970s/ |title = A Line Made by Walking (Getty Museum)}} and the National Galleries of Scotland.{{Cite web | url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/92838/line-made-walking |title = A Line Made by Walking|publisher=National Galleries of Scotland}} It has also been on display in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, as part of a major exhibition of Long's work held by that museum in the 1970s and 1980s.{{cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/richard-long|title=Richard Long|publisher=Guggenheim Museum|access-date=2 December 2019}}
The 2017 novel, A Line Made by Walking, by Sara Baume, is named for the artwork.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/12/a-line-made-by-walking-sara-baume-review-deeply-affecting|title=A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume – review|work=The Guardian|first=Stephanie|last=Cross|date=March 12, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://bookpage.com/interviews/21221-sara-baume-fiction#.XegjA-hKiUk|title=Sara Baume: Portrait of an artist in retreat|publisher=BookPage|first=Chika|last=Gujarathi|date=April 18, 2017}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Line Made by Walking}}