Land-Art, Ecologie, Politică şi Societate

Abstract

Abstract The Land-Art was integrated to Postmodernism by the most art historians, having as arguments the important affinities presented by the two artistic phenomena, both at the expressing modalities level but, especially, at the level of principles and, of the ideological sphere. The Postmodernism intended, as it is well-known, to parody or to interpret, in a proper way, a cultural tradition whose authority had become disturbing the Land-Art also started an innovating programme in the 60s -70s of the 20th century, through which the millenary art of the landscape was questionable, trying this way, a new and radical art-like approach of nature. The Art-Land was given various other names, syntagms which points out the work modalities or the materials used in the creation art: “Sociological Art”, “Earth Art”, “Works Art”, “Environmental Art”, “Earthworks”, “The Art of Landscape”, “The Sculpture of Landscape”, “The Walking Art”. The Land Art borrowed, in a great measure, the own means of expression of other tendencies which were performing on the artistic stage in the same time, such as the technique of installation, some of the principles experienced by Process-Art, by the Environmental Art or by Happening. The most representative land artists knew to integrate all the borrowings to a new vision, an original one, which, for the first time, was turning the nature into the support of the artistic creation. Apart from the point of view through which the Land Art is understood as an integral part of Postmodernism, there are also opinions, supported by well-known specialists, through which the Modernism of the 60s from the past century is seen as a possible origin of the Land-Art, especially if we have in mind the works of some great modern artists, such as Henry Moore, Robert Morris, Anthony Caro, Yves Klein and Tony Smith. Land Art presents two different ways of demonstration, hostile from the point of view of attitude towards nature and public: on the one hand some of the land artists look for the privacy of the act of artistic creation in the natural environment (one example this way is Richard Long), others, on the contrary, are guided by an art with clear social implications (e.g. the typical case of Christo). The ecological position of the tendency is underlined by the artists ' spokesman, Robert Smithson, who thinks that it should be adopted a committed, fighting attitude, pragmatically sheltered itself towards future.