Richard Long British, 1945

Richard Long (Bristol, England, 1945)

Richard Long studied at the West of England College of Art and from 1966 he attended London's St. Martin's School of Art for two years. In 1972 and 1982 he was a participant in the Documenta in Kassel. In 1976 he represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 1989 he was awarded the Turner Prize and in 1990 he was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. From 2001 Long became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in 2009 the Japanese award Praemium Imperiale. 

The artistic oeuvre includes conceptual wanderings in all parts of the world, which he always documents photographically and textually. In the course of such hikes, he creates temporary stone or wooden sculptures, which are often removed after photographic documentation or left to natural weathering. In museums and galleries, Long often installs sculptures made of boulders and boulders, driftwood or similar unprocessed materials. In his large paper work "Footprints" from 1987, muddy-brown footprints draw a circle and bear witness to a seemingly aimless and directionless traversal of this limited area. Density and dynamics, the movement of the artist within narrow limits, the brief visibility of human traces and their passing and blurring if they are not captured by the artist in print, give the work its intellectual dimension. Nature is Long's studio, the materials he finds there are his elementary means of expression. What every hiker feels in his best moments, an increased self-esteem: Long gives this existential experience an exemplary form.

His most important solo exhibitions include the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023); M Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (2021); Château La Coste, Provence, France (2021); De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands (2019); Fondation CAB, Brussels, Belgium (2018); Houghton Hall, Norfolk, UK (2017).

In 2018, the Queen of England named him a Knight Bachelor and in 2023 he received the prestigious Wolf Prize "for the possibilities of redefining art-making and for changing the parameters of the visual arts."

Copyright the artist. Photo UniCredit Bank GmbH