It is now nearly fifty years since the land art or earthworks movement began to change the nature of contemporary art, creating sculpture from space and the materials of place. In recent decades, land art has had a significant impact on the practice of landscape architecture. John Beardsley will introduce the phenomenon of land art, focusing on how it was understood in the context of contemporary art in the 1960s and 1970s. Udo Weilacher will speak on its impact on landscape architecture in recent decades. A dialogue will follow.
Udo Weilacher is a German landscape architect and professor of landscape architecture at the Technical University of Munich. He is the author of Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art (1996/1999) and Syntax of Landscape: The Landscape Architecture of Peter Latz and Partners (2008). He is the spring 2017 Mellon Practitioner in Residence at Dumbarton Oaks.
John Beardsley is director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. He is the author of Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape (1984; fourth edition 2006) and numerous books and articles on contemporary art and design.
