What Is Land Art? Definition And Examples

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Published: June 5, 2024 | Last Updated: June 11, 2025

What is Land Art? Definition & Meaning

Land Art (also known as Earth Art or Earthworks) is an art movement that uses natural landscapes as both medium and canvas. Artists shape, carve, or mark the land itself to create large-scale, site-specific works. These pieces often exist outdoors and interact with elements like soil, rock, water, and weather. The movement began in the late 1960s as artists moved away from galleries and commercial art spaces.

Origins and Key Influences

Land Art developed in the United States during the late 1960s. Three cultural forces helped shape it: growing environmental awareness, anti-establishment ideals, and the formal language of Minimalism. Artists wanted to leave behind gallery walls and work directly with the landscape.

A large spiral made of black basalt rocks extends from the shore into the pink waters of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. — Spiral Jetty (1970) is one of the most iconic works of Land Art. Created by Robert Smithson using basalt rock, mud, and salt crystals, the massive spiral interacts with the changing levels and salinity of the Great Salt Lake. Its form merges sculpture, landscape, and entropy.

The 1968 “Earth Works” exhibition at Dwan Gallery in New York helped introduce the idea, and the following year, Robert Smithson began work on Spiral Jetty (1970, Dia Art Foundation), which became one of the movement’s most iconic pieces:

Black and white aerial photograph of Roden Crater, an extinct volcanic cinder cone in Arizona — Aerial view of Roden Crater, a dormant volcano near Flagstaff, Arizona. Artist James Turrell began transforming the site into a large-scale celestial observatory in the 1970s. The project uses tunnels, chambers, and light apertures to frame the sky and track solar and lunar events.

Common Materials and Working Methods

Land artists use materials found at the site, rocks, soil, sand, wood, or water. These choices reflect the location’s natural character. Artists rarely bring outside materials. Instead, they rearrange what’s already there. Texture, erosion, and weather play a direct role in shaping the final work.

Some works are permanent. Others are built to disappear. Artists like Andy Goldsworthy use natural materials, including stacked stones, to create temporary sculptures that respond to the environment.

Curving line of eucalyptus branches laid through a tall forest of eucalyptus trees — Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line curves through a eucalyptus grove in San Francisco’s Presidio. Made from fallen branches, the sculpture follows the natural contours of the landscape, blending with its surroundings while quietly marking the passage of time. **Image Credit: Min Zhou, CC BY 2.0** https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Since many are remote or temporary, artists rely on documentation to preserve them. This includes aerial photography, time-lapse video, and detailed maps. These images often become the only record of the work once nature reclaims the site.

Scale and Site-Specificity

Group of people gathered in the desert watching the sunset through concrete tunnels — A crowd gathers at Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels (1976) during the summer solstice. The four concrete cylinders are aligned to frame the sunrise and sunset on the solstices, creating a direct link between land, sky, and seasonal time. **Image Credit: Matthew.kowal, CC BY-SA 4.0** https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Land Art usually works on a monumental scale. Projects often stretch across deserts, hillsides, and open plains. The location shapes the art. Artists study light, terrain, and weather before building. Some works are buried in the earth. Others rise out of it or align with the sun’s movement.

Land Art and Environmental Themes

Large troll sculpture made of recycled wood standing in a dense forest — One of Thomas Dambo’s giant trolls stands quietly among the trees. Built from reclaimed wood, these site-specific sculptures appear in forests and parks around the world, blending storytelling with environmental awareness. Image Credit: Jan Sørup

Many land artists address environmental issues through their work. Some restore damaged landscapes or highlight fragile ecosystems. These projects don’t just use the land, they respond to it. Other artists use native plants or water systems to shape works that grow and change over time.

Influence on Film and Media

Land Art affected how some filmmakers use natural environments. In Gerry (2002, Miramax), Gus Van Sant follows two men as they walk through empty landscapes, recalling the long-duration experience of visiting a land artwork.

Two men in a barren desert landscape, one standing atop a large rock formation — A scene from Gerry (2002, Miramax) shows two figures navigating a vast, featureless desert. The film’s use of long takes and natural terrain echoes the scale and minimalism of Land Art, drawing attention to isolation, movement, and the passage of time. Image Credit: Miramax.

Film scholars and critics (e.g., Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound) have noted that Gerry resembles a conceptual art or art installation more than a traditional narrative film. It uses landscape as medium, which aligns closely with Land Art aesthetics.

In Baraka (1992, The Samuel Goldwyn Company), the camera treats the land as subject, not setting, echoing the themes of site, time, and weather found in Land Art.

Tiered rice terraces built into a hillside, surrounded by tropical palm trees — A shot from Baraka (1992, The Samuel Goldwyn Company) captures hillside rice terraces, blending human labor with landscape over centuries. The film’s visual structure echoes Land Art through scale, repetition, and reverence for natural form. Image Credit: The Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Ron Fricke worked as the cinematographer on Koyaanisqatsi, and his work in Baraka continues the theme of non-verbal, visual contemplation of nature, which parallels Land Art’s focus on site, duration, and environment.

Legacy and Continued Practice

Land Art changed how artists work with space, time, and nature. It rejected gallery systems and challenged what materials and forms could be. Today, artists continue to build site-specific works that address land use, climate, and urban space. Some use digital tools to map or simulate landscapes. Others still work with earth, light, and weather, just as the early pioneers did.

Summing Up

Land Art is a movement that turns landscapes into artworks. Artists use local materials, large scale, and outdoor settings to create pieces that connect directly with the land. These works resist permanence and often exist only through documentation. Whether built in deserts or cities, Land Art reshaped how we think about art, nature, and public space.

Read Next: Curious how art movements shaped film?

Explore our full Visual Art Timeline to see how styles like Surrealism, Cubism, and Suprematism influenced cinema’s most experimental moments.

Or keep browsing our Film Movements & World Cinema section for more on the histories that shaped screen culture around the globe.

What Is Land Art? Definition and Examples