Valley
With their intimate scale and satisfying physicality, these 12 photographs by Richard Long reward attention in a way akin to the original aesthetic experience of seeing his sculpture on site and firsthand. Photography was crucial, of course, in recasting the idea of sculpture in the 1960s, as the idea of portable, salable art objects came under attack by the countercultural generation of Minimal and Postminimal sculptors. And in that spirit, Long early on coined the term "Public Freehold" to designate his ephemeral interventions in the landscape as "independent of ownership—just out there." He then began to apply that term to his own photographs of his sculpture. The "Public Freehold" prints represent the source images from which prints for exhibition or more frequently reproduction would be made.
Artwork Details
- Title: Valley
- Artist: Richard Long (British, born 1945)
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 4 7/8 × 7 3/4 in. (12.4 × 19.7 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of the artist and Angela K. Westwater, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.881.9
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Richard Long
1967
Richard Long
1969
Richard Long
1970
Richard Long
1967
Richard Long
1969
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