Land art lecture

Land Art is an area I have always been interested in yet I have never done much research. Today I had a lecture on Land Art and artists who tried to escape the gallery and art system, starting with the work of Robert Smithson who went into the landscape looking for areas of land scarred by humana and industry. The most well-known piece is 'Spiral Jetty', and spiral of rocks going into a salt lake, Smithson was keen for the environment to interact with his work, the ultimate happened when the spiral was covered by the lake for a period of time. The notion of the work decaying and not being maintained in a pristine condition appeals to me, I don't like the perfect and love being able to see a history of somehting in the texture which are created by decay, erosion etc. To me the imperfect is more beautiful. Smithsons work was created as a reaction to the white cube gallery and the work of artists such as, Caro and Serra who used industrial items like steel in their works. Smithson comments, "Why steel is valued over rust is a technological value, not an artistic one." This shows Smithsons resentment for steel being used in its prestine condition and values it's beauty once it has eroded and turned to rust.

Various other interesting aspects of Land Art were also raised in my seminar, mainly concerning the fact that many land art artists wanted there work to show the notion of escaping the gallery and being unconnected with it. Yet this seems to be an impossible thing to do, as many of the artists had to rely on galleries for their support, which ultimatly contradicts the reason the artists wanted to work out of the gallery. They didn't like the way art had become so controlled by the white cube gallery, but without this can any of their work really been seen as art? The gallery is now instrumental in the art world, and has the power to say what is art today.