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Very Large Art

The human urge to create is sometimes expressed on a very large scale.

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For 44 years, artist Michael Heizer has labored in the remote Nevada desert on City, a vast sculpture that he hopes will inspire awe and wonder for millennia to come.

His vision is deeply personal, but his urge to use the surface of the earth as a giant canvas is far from unique. Heizer is part of a "Land Art" movement that is inspired by works that date back thousands of years.


Fast forward to the past few decades and a brave band of artists who seek to express themselves on a grand scale. 

Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson

They defy the conventions of the art market by creating works that are unsellable and, except to those who wish to travel to remote locations or to view them in photos, unseeable.


A very different vision is being pursued in the Arizona desert by James Turrell, who is modifying a volcanic feature into a quasi-mystical exploration of light, space, place, and experience.

 


Roden Crater, Spiral Jetty, and City are expressions of so-called high art. Large human-made marks on the land frequently serve less exalted purposes.

 


Among the oldest and grandest forms of large art is, of course, the garden.

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

Islands of tranquillity and manicured natural beauty on the ground, they can become striking geometric abstractions from above. The French are especially adept at this art form...


Another genre of large art is the modern airport.

 


The largest land art of all is the collective work of countless thousands of farmers and surveyors who have painted vast agricultural landscapes across much of the planet.

 

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