Earthwork (art)

An artwork which involves the manipulation of the natural environment and/or the use of natural materials, such as earth, stones, or wood, largely a phenomenon of the late 1960s and 1970s. Although some were exhibited in galleries, most earthworks were vast and usually constructed on remote, deserted sites and hence only known through photographs and plans. Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer (1944– ), two leading exponents, engaged in physically overpowering works, for example, Heizer's Complex One, Central Eastern Nevada (1972, unfinished), an elongated, pyramidal hill of rammed earth supported by steel and concrete.

The Earthworks or Land art movement drew its inspiration from Conceptual art, seeking to expand the concept of art, and of sculpture in particular, and to redefine attitudes both to technology and to the natural environment.