Brian Wallis

The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by the vast, uncultivated spaces of the desert and mountain as well as by post-industrial wastelands, artists such as Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson moved the earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts, such as Christo`s Running Fence and Walter De Maria`s The Lightning Field. Journeys became works of art for Richard Long whilst Dennis Oppenheim immersed his entire body in the contours of the land. This book fully documents the 1960s Land Art movement and surveys examples of Environmental Art to the present day. Earthworks, environments, performances and actions by artists ranging from Ana Mendieta in the 1970s and 80s to Peter Fend in the 1990s are illustrated with breathtaking photographs, sketches and project notes. An introductory essay by critic Brian Wallis discusses the key artists, works and issues that define Land Art historically, as well as its later ramifications. The editor, critic Jeffrey Kastner, has written extensively on post-war art. He has compiled an invaluable archive of statements by all the featured artists alongside related texts by art historians, critics, philosophers and cultural theorists including Jean Baudrillard, Edmund Burke, Guy Debord, Michael Fried, Dave Hickey, Rosalind Krauss, Lucy R Lippard, Thomas McEvilley and Simon Schama.

The definitive survey not only of Land Art but also of contemporary environmental art, featuring exquisite photographs of site-specific works in spectacular locations around the world. Essential reading for both art enthusiasts and anyone concerned with the environment, the book is the most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book on the subject.

El derrumbamiento del movimiento moderno en las artes ha suscitado un asombroso repertorio de respuestas artísticas y críticas. Los veinticinco ensayos que recoge Arte despues de la modernidad proporcionan una perspectiva general de las direcciones mas interesantes que han seguido el arte y la critica recientes, al abordar temas como el declive de la ideologia moderna en las artes o la emergencia de una amplia gama de practicas artisticas posmodernas. las corrientes actuales en pintura, cine, video y fotografia. las investigaciones de artistas pertenecientes al ambito de las artes plasticas en torno a los medios de comunicacion y el tipo de imagenes que emplean. o la dinamica del tejido social en el que se produce y se difunde el arte. Esta compilacion es una guia indispensable para comprender tanto las ideas como los temas que animan el arte contemporaneo, ese giro cultural de gran alcance que se ha dado en llamar posmodernidad.