1. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (Great Salt Lake), 1970.
Environmental Art

2. What is Environmental Art?
• Art that examines and improves our relationship with
nature.
Examines nature and its processes, or educates us about
environmental problems
• Artworks affected or powered by wind, water, lightning,
even earthquakes
• Re-envisions our relationship to nature, proposing new
ways for us to co-exist with our environment
• Reclaims damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in
artistic and often aesthetic ways
http://www.greenmuseum.org/what_is_ea.php

3. When did it Originate?
• 1960’s and 1970’s.
• A group of artists in
the United States and
Europe began to
experiment with
sculpting the earth and
creating sculptures
with natural materials

4. Materials
• Sticks
Rocks
• Grass
• Leaves
Bark
• Sand
• Water
Seeds
• Seedpods “Tight Chalk Spiral” by Martin Waters

5. Photography and Environmental Art
Because environmental art is
often made to disappear or
transform over time, or
designed for a particular
place, photography is the
primary way to permanently
capture environmental art.

6. Historical Connections
• 1968 - the first photo of earth
made people realize the
smallness of our world in the
vastness of the universe.
1970 - U.S. celebrated the
first Earth Day; Congress
created the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
• Anti-nuclear weapons groups
also helped spur a greater
respect for the environment.
Apollo 8's Earthrise, December 24, 1968

7. Robert Smithson
• 1938 - 1973
American
• One of his main themes was
entropy
• “entropy is a condition that is
moving toward a gradual
equilibrium”
Explored the balance of opposites
• nature/culture
• space/time
monument/anti-monument
• site/non-site

8. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (Great Salt Lake), 1970.

9. Nancy Holt
• 1938 -
American
• Filmmaker/Photographer
/Environmental Artist
Creates Earthworks -
“literally seeing devices,
fixed points for tracking
the positions of the sun,
earth and stars.”

10. Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (Great Basin Desert, Utah), 1976.

11. Walter de Maria
• 1935 -
American
• Land Artist
• Creates art that allows the viewer
to physically and emotionally
connect to nature.
• His art asks viewers to think
about the relationship between
earth and the universe.

12. Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977. Long-term installation in Western New Mexico.

13. Andy Goldsworthy
• 1956 -
British
The founder of modern
rock balancing
• Creates art that is meant to
change and decay over
time, which he documents
through photography.

14. Andy Goldsworthy

15. Andy Goldsworthy, Knotweed stalks Derwent Water, Cumbria

16. The Link to environmentalism
• Environmentalists are concerned with issues such as
pollution, preserving the natural habitat of animals,
global warming, disease, endangered species, and
technologies that are harmful to the environment.
Not all environmental art is environmentally friendly,
or carries an environmentalist message.
• Some environmental works actually harm the
surrounding environment, or hurt the habitat of
the native animals, plants, and other organisms.

17. Text
Christo & Jeanne-Claude were often accused of harming
the natural environments used in their installations.
Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Valley Curtain (Rifle, Colorado), 1970-1972.

18. Eco Art
• A contemporary form of
environmental art.
• Eco artists strive to
improve the
environment, or make
others aware of
environmental concerns,
through their work, and
try to use sustainable or
recycled materials in
their work.

19. The Living Water Garden in central Chengdu, China, is a park
dedicated to highlighting the importance of water and water
conservation. Sculptures act as part of a filtering system which
channels water throughout the park.
Betsy Damon, "The Living Water Garden", Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, 1999.

20. This sculpture, by British artist Jill Townsley, was created
by recycling 9,375 paper till rolls, which were formed into
cones and assembled over a 4-day period by 20 volunteers.
Till Rolls, (2011), Jill Townsley