Sir Richard Long RA (b. 1945)

Sir Richard Long studied at the West of England College of Art from 1962 to 1965 and at St. Martin’s School of Art, London from 1966 to 1967. Long wanted to make nature the subject of his work, but in new ways. His first walk-based work was a straight line in a field (1967). Subsequent walks took Long across Dartmoor and Exmoor and enabled him to explore the relationships between time, distance, geography and measurement. These walks were recorded in maps, photographs and text works. Throughout his career Long has explored sculpture as a medium concerned with place as well as material and form. He was knighted in 2018.

Of his own work, the artist has said: “Over the years these sculptures have explored transience, permanence, visibility and recognition. A sculpture may be moved, dispersed or carried. Stones can be used as markers of time or distance, or exist as parts of a huge, yet anonymous, sculpture. On a mountain walk a sculpture could be made above the clouds, perhaps in a remote region, bringing an imaginative freedom about how, or where, art can be made in the world.”

Profile

Royal Academician

Sculptor

Born: 1945 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 5 December 2001

Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2020

Gender: Male

Visit Sir Richard Long RA (b. 1945)'s website

Preferred media: Sculpture

Works by Sir Richard Long in the RA Collection

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