Baja California Circle

Richard Long
England, born 1945
Baja California Circle
Baja La Creste granite, 1989
Museum purchase with funds from the Elizabeth W. Russell Foundation
1989.4
© Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Richard Long, who studied at the West of England College of Art in Bristol and at St. Martin’s School of Art, London, was born in 1945 in Bristol, where he still resides. Initially, Long’s work was associated with the international Earth Art movement of the late 1960s. Whether made in England or abroad, his work may take the forms of walks, stone and stick sculptures, photographs, maps, texts, artists’ books, or mud wall works. Using simple, elementary forms—lines, circles, or spirals—Long’s earthbound, floor-hugging sculptures have an unobtrusive, contemplative presence. Even as his work has moved indoors, to museums and galleries, it retains that sense of impermanence while referring back to his walks on the earth—in the materials that he uses and in the random or precise forms encountered, employed, and discovered.

Richard Long, who travels widely, records his walks through nature by temporarily marking the land in some way. The artist often uses geometric forms to make his human mark upon the landscape: he has made circles of stone or has trodden down grasses so that his path along a straight line may be seen. Because these marks are temporary, Long documents the results through photographs. In other works, such as Baja California Circle, the artist has removed elements from a particular environment he has encountered in his travels and created a memory of that place in the gallery setting. Long creates simple geometric forms like lines, circles or spirals, using natural materials.

While visiting the San Diego countryside in 1989, Long selected granite stones originating from Baja California and placed them on the gallery floor in a circle 14 feet in diameter. Long’s physical interaction with his work is very important to his art making. In a way, he is re-creating his experiences with the land on his own human, physical scale , which is tiny in comparison to the scale of the landscape.

Discussion Questions

(For Grades K-2)

What materials did the artist use in this sculpture?

If you touched this sculpture, how do you think it would feel?

If you were going to create a sculpture using materials found in the environment, what materials would you use? What would it look like?

(For Grades 4-6)

What materials did the artist use in this sculpture?

What is unusual about the way this sculpture is displayed?

How do you think this sculpture is installed in the museum? Do you think it looks the same every time it is shown?

Have you ever used natural materials to create a sculpture?
What materials found in nature could you use?