Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966–1979
28 September 2013–5 January 2014
A touring exhibition from the Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
National Museum of Wales
Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP
www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk
In the late 1960s, artists on both sides of the Atlantic turned away from the enclosed space of the gallery and went out into the landscape to forge new forms of art. This art encompassed a wide range of practices, including sculpture, performance and photography.
Uncommon Ground takes a fresh look at British art from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, exploring the unique characteristics of the British landscape, and examines how landscape and nature came to be key concerns of Conceptual art in Britain. The exhibition reveals the distinct forms that Land art took here in Britain: predominantly conceptual and ephemeral, handmade and organic. The key strategies developed in the UK included the photographic documentation of actions and the positioning of walking and travelling as creative acts, combined with an exploration of locality and a keen awareness of rural traditions and contexts. At the same time, the term ‘landscape’ was also being questioned and transformed by artists, provoking a renewed interest in older forms of landscape art, and in historic landscapes. From being seen as something old-fashioned and redundant, landscape became the ground of radical artistic experiment.
Curated by Nicholas Alfrey, (University of Nottingham) Joy Sleeman, (Slade School of Art, University of London) and Ben Tufnell, (curator and writer) Uncommon Ground will examine the meaning Land art might have in a British context, where landscape has long been a recognised characteristic of national art and identity.
Drawn primarily from the Arts Council Collection and supplemented by loans from other major UK collections, as well as the artists themselves, this exhibition features artists who have made some of the greatest contributions to art in Britain in the past forty years or more, including Tony Cragg, Antony Gormley, Hamish Fulton, Richard Long, Anthony McCall and David Nash.
Events and talks:
Lunchtime talks
Friday 8 November, 1:05pm
“Introduction to Uncommon Ground”
Nicholas Alfrey, Associate Professor of Art History at Nottingham University and co-curator of Uncommon Ground: Land art in Britain 1966–79, gives an introduction to the exhibition.
Friday 15 November, 1:05pm
“Collecting the Contemporary”
Jill Constantine, Acting Head of the Arts Council Collection, talks about the history of the Arts Council Collection and its acquisitions policy.
Film screening
Friday 8 November, 2pm
Film played a crucial role in the emergence and development of new forms of landscape art, and constitutes a significant strand in the development of land art itself. This screening features films by artists including Malcolm Le Grice, William Raban, Ray Barrie, Jenny Okun and Chris Welsby.
Free, but booking required: eventscardiff [at] museumwales.ac.uk
Land Art and Photography
Thursday 14 November, 2–4:30pm
A series of talks and discussions by artists and curators exploring the status of the photograph in Land art and its legacy for artists working with landscape and photography today.
Free, but booking required: eventscardiff [at] museumwales.ac.uk
Uncommon Ground: Land art in Britain 1966–79 will tour to the following venues:
Mead Gallery, University of Warwick
18 January 2014–8 March 2014
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
5 April 2014–15 June 2014
