Richard Long
Full Moon Circle, Houghton Hall, 2003

Photo © The Eye Snapper

 

Land and Sky: Richard Long at Houghton
April 30-October 26, 2017

RICHARD LONG CREATES NEW WORK AT HOUGHTON

Houghton Hall in Norfolk will host a major exhibition, including specially commissioned new works, by the internationally celebrated British sculptor, Richard Long. The exhibition, Land and Sky: Richard Long at Houghton opens on 30 April and runs until 26 October 2017 (Press Preview: Thursday 27 April 2107). This is the first Richard Long exhibition ever to present outdoor works in the landscape.

Richard Long is one of the most influential figures of conceptual and land art, part of a generation of distinguished British artists who extended the possibilities of sculpture beyond traditional materials and method. His work is rooted in his deep affinity and engagement with nature.

The artist’s new works in the grounds of Houghton Hall use a variety of materials, including local Carr stone, flint from East Anglia, tree stumps from the Estate, as well as slate from Cornwall. They accompany the permanent Long sculpture, Full Moon Circle, which was commissioned for Houghton in 2003. There will also be large mud works in the outdoor colonnades, and smaller-scale works in gallery spaces, as well as historic material relating to the artist’s career.

The exhibition is curated by Lorcan O’Neill in association with the artist. It will be accompanied by a specially-produced catalogue with an essay by Rudi Fuchs (former director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam) and an interview with the artist.

The show will be the largest since Long’s retrospective at the Tate in 2009, and will be a unique opportunity to see new site-specific works set within the historic landscape and gardens at Houghton, alongside permanent artworks by a range of contemporary artists, including James Turrell, Zhan Wang, Jeppe Hein, Stephen Cox, Rachel Whiteread, Anya Gallaccio and Phillip King.

Lord Cholmondeley said: “I am delighted that such an important exhibition of Richard Long’s work will be presented at Houghton including many new works. My hope is that in time Houghton will become a ‘must-see’ destination for those interested in contemporary art and sculpture.”

Richard Long has been in the vanguard of conceptual and land art in Britain since the 1960s. He was born in Bristol, UK in 1945, where he continues to live and work. He studied at West of England College of Art, Bristol (1962–65), then St Martin’s School of Art, London (1966–68). In 1969, he was included in a seminal exhibition of Minimalist and Conceptual works entitled When Attitude Becomes Form at the Kunsthalle Bern for which he made a walk in the Alps that was documented by his first text work. Developing from his early mud and clay floor sculptures, in the 1980s he began making new types of mud works with handprints applied directly on the wall. He also continued to make large sculptures of lines and circles from slate, driftwood, footprints or stone, often sourced from quarries near the exhibition sites.

Major solo exhibitions include CAC Malaga, Spain (2016), Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2015), Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2010), Tate Britain, London, UK (2009), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2007), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA (2006), National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (1996), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA (1994) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (1986). Long represented Britain at the 37th Venice Biennale, Italy (1976) and won the Turner Prize in 1989. He received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture (1990), has been elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2001), was awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in the field of sculpture (2009). In 2013 he was awarded a CBE.

 

 

 

Listing:

Exhibition title: Land and Sky: Richard Long at Houghton
Dates: 30 April – 26 October 2017
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays only.
Gates open at 11am – Last Admission is 4pm (one hour before closure)
Tickets: £18 per adult to visit Richard Long Exhibition, House, Gardens and Grounds
£10 per adult to visit just Gardens and Grounds.
Children 16 years and under are Free.
www.houghtonhall.com Tickets may be bought online and will be discounted. Use promotion code AAAA.

The generous support of the following organisations is gratefully acknowledged:
Christie’s, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill and Lisson Gallery.