Date of Defense

2008

Department

Art

Keywords

art history

Abstract

The 1960's saw the emergence of an art world full of extremes. Traditional modes of art making and representation were replaced with modern unconventional techniques and materials. A heightened sense of political and social awareness was ever present in the realm of art. Performance was all the rage among the new generation of artists. Idea itself had even become elevated to the status of an art object. The body became an integral part of not only art making, but of viewing art. These new perspectives had profound effects on sculpture in particular. As art historian Rosalind Krauss explains, "surprising things had come to be called sculpture; narrow corridors with TV monitors at the ends; large photographs documenting country hikes, mirrors placed at strange angles in ordinary rooms; temporary lines cut into the floor of the desert." It comes as no surprise that in the midst of the emerging innovations of the turbulent decade, an art movement that reallocated art objects into new environmental contexts and transformed, yet encompassed, methods of performance, idea, and the body was brought to fruition by artists motivated by these new changes. This movement is known as Earth art. The Earth Art movement sought to challenge the motion that galleries were most suited to exhibit art, and artists moved their work out of those confined spaces into the natural landscape.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Campus Only

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