Environmental art can take many forms and be made from a variety of materials, and it frequently deals with environmental issues. Through subject matter, materials, or the location chosen for the art, environmental art alludes to the natural world. Some environmental artists, on the other hand, are more concerned with the final product than with the environment’s impact.
Environmental art is a broad term that encompasses earthworks, site works, and other types of environmental art. When several artists chose the landscape as the medium for their works of art in the 1960s and 1970s, the term became popular. Robert Smithson, one of the most well-known environmental artists, completed Spiral Jetty in 1970. On the Great Salt Lake’s shore, this earthwork spiral made of black rock, earth, and salt crystal sits. Spiral Jetty was submerged in water for decades until 2004, when the Great Salt Lake’s water level dropped due to drought conditions similar to those that existed at the time of the artwork’s creation.
Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer, two other artists from the same era as Smithson, used the landscape in different ways to make artistic statements. In 1971, Walter De Maria erected Lightning Field in New Mexico, which consisted of 400 stainless steel rods arranged in a flat open field. During a storm, Lightning Field can attract an ever-changing array of lightning bolts, as its name suggests. In 1970, Michael Heizer completed Double Negative by bulldozing 240,000 tons of dirt and rock in Nevada’s Mormon Mesa to create two 30-foot (9-meter) wide ramps.
Environmental artists are torn between their concerns for the final product and their environmental concerns. Smithson, De Maria, and Heizer were clearly unconcerned about the consequences of their changes to the landscape and the potential harm they could cause to the environment. Environmental artists like Richard Long, on the other hand, show a greater concern for the environment. The majority of Long’s environmental artworks are minor changes to the landscape. Ulrike Arnold creates paintings on canvas with natural pigments she collects from all over the world.
Some artists, such as Allan Comp, create environmental art by reclaiming contaminated land. Comp collaborated with a group of artists, scientists, and engineers to clean up a coal-mining-polluted area. Comp and his colleagues created a park that also serves as a natural water treatment system, filtering toxic metals from the water.