Great Art Explained

Season 2, Episode 7: Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson

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You could say Land art existed thousands of years even before oil painting, but it would take a group of American artists to bring it back to the public gaze in the 1960s and 70s. Artists like Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, and Nancy Holt had emerged from sculpture, minimalism and conceptual art. Rather than painting the landscape, they started working outdoors and sculpting directly into the landscape itself. Instead of paint brushes, they would use bulldozers, and the earth would be, not only the site, but also the materials and the canvas.