RICHARD LONG (BORN 1945) - Lot 55

RICHARD LONG (BORN 1945) Totem Paint on wooden beam Unsigned H. 227 x 7 x 4 cm PROVENANCE Haunch of Venison Gallery, London, 2004. Richard Long, born in Bristol in 1945, is a central figure in Land Art. Since the late 1960s, he has made walking his medium. He drew lines in the middle of nature, collected materials such as mud, stones and wood, and transposed these gestures into installations and murals. His art is based on a tension between nature, time, displacement and imprint. With Totem, a painting on wooden beams Richard Long extends this relationship with gesture and raw material. The title evokes a symbolic, almost sacred verticality, while the wood, often gathered or chosen for its simple strength, reminds us of our anchorage to the ground. He paints directly on these elements, as he does with mud on walls, using his own movement to create a trace. Totem here signifies an elevation of the ordinary gesture, a sculpture that retains within it the spirit of place, of walking and of the hand. Please ask for condition reports before the sale: they are not included in the listing.