Long, Richard
The hand print is a method of picture-making that most of us embrace enthusiastically as children, but leave hastily behind us in the rush to master more sophisticated techniques. In River Avon Mud Hand Spiral the Bristol-based artist Richard Long recaptures the bold simplicity of this idea. He creates a striking image using the most elemental of means; his own body and mud gathered from the Avon, a river that has inspired him since childhood. Long holds an important place in the English tradition of landscape art; he works with nature, but he is not a painter of landscape. His works include photographs, maps, texts, sculpture and wall drawings. He cites the famous cave paintings at Lascaux in France as an important influence on his work. In contrast, perhaps, to most people's perceptions, he believes that “...somewhat art has not changed. My art is very close to those old cave paintings. It's still about hand marks with mud on rock.”
River Avon Mud Hand Spiral
1984