Richard Long (born 1945)

I came upon his sculptural work almost by chance in the mid-1980s. The weird thing about modern art is that, after it got separated from draftsmanship, it got a lot easier to be a fool for doing it, so being an artist took a lot of bravery. It allowed your idiocy to be seen plain and up front.

I’ll admit I had gone to the Guggenheim just to see the building rather than any art it contained. I was already a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, who, as an old man, had designed it. And he was good example of someone with a clear artistic gift whom I didn’t like personally. That was sort of an important insight for me.  What an asshole. What an amazing building.

I figured that, since I was there and all, I would have a look at the art. They had given Richard Long the lower part of the ramp and the atrium. I don’t remember whose art was on the upper part of the ramp, but it must have been uninteresting to me.

Richard Long’s work  (at least what they showed of it then) consisted of three types: piles of rocks; walks of various kinds he had taken, with “evidence” of them on framed maps showing the routes, with explanations; and black-and-white photographs of his land sculptures. It was the photos of the land sculptures that had me crying by the time I reached the atrium. For these were WAY different than, say, Andy Goldsworthy’s work, though I understand why the two would be compared. With these, you couldn’t tell if they were man-made or not. And that was the point.

I remember two of them, in particular: one was a circle of branches that might have been naturally occurring. One couldn’t know. The other was a photograph of water splashed on a rock in a particular pattern.  Not only was that one in the category of man-made or not, but it was also temporary. It was good that a photograph was taken of it, because when the stone dried out, it would disappear.

Anyway the man-made versus naturally occurring dichotomy went on throughout the show, getting only subtler as one proceeded down the ramp. You finished the show in confusion. And that was the idea. I became a fan of Richard Long from that moment on.