Oldal 229 [229]
Nature, Art, ACTIVISM 227
Ben Tufnell defines three periods in the history of environmental art from the 1960s:
1. The first, from 1967 to 1977, was highly innovative; the artists thoroughly
rethought the earlier views and ideas about nature and art, and ventured into new
domains of creativity. Typical works of the period are Richard Long’s A Line Made by
Walking,‘ and Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field.
2. Tufnell dated the second period from the late 1970s to the late 1980s and
characterized it with Agnes Denes’s Wheatfield: A Confrontation (1982)° and Joseph
Beuys’s 7000 Oaks (1982)’, as well as Robert Morris’ untitled work composed for the
Land Reclamation as Sculpture symposium (King County, 1979)°.
3. The third period began in the early 1990s and was ongoing at the time of publication
(2008). It was/is concerned with a more direct and active relationship with environmental
questions and with re-examining the connections between art, society and the
environment. In the author’s view, the period has been characterized by the dominance
of performativity and an active contribution to discourses on environmental questions,
including warnings and testimonies (Tufnell 206: 94; cited Thornes 2008: 404).
From the 1960s and 70s, environmental artists have increasingly thematised the
grave ecological problems in their works together with the rights of indigenous
peoples, the disappearance of the bio-cultural heritage, the rights of animals and
plants, and the long-term impact of the Anthropocene on nature and culture. The
trend was not independent of the counterculture gaining momentum in that
period, nor of the social, cultural and environmental movements, which directly
inspired the activism of environmental art. Changes in the academic and educational
scenes and the spread of environmental education, environmental history, and
philosophy likewise provided motivation. The overall intellectual atmosphere
(Zeitgeist) also urged artists to ponder the question cited above: what is the place
of art in the Anthropocene era and among the possible responses to the climate
catastrophe? Their attempts to answer the question inevitably took them beyond
the artistic aspect into areas of ethics and politics as well.
Although these artists have been motivated by contemporary environmental or
social problems, their artistic styles have been inspired by earlier, 20" century
trends and schools of art. These include the avant-garde, with its radical
experimentalism and its effort to eliminate the differences between the artistic and
the everyday. They were also influenced by minimalism, which looks for the essence
of forms and conceptualism, which focuses on concepts and ideas (Hubbell — Ryan
2022: 156-158).
Considering the function of environmental art, Nicolas Bullot raises disquieting
questions as to whether these works are able to bring about a social transformation
that would buttress environmental values and how they can avoid becoming empty
propaganda. Here the basic functions of art play a certain role and have a task:
following up, manipulating emotion, acting cooperatively, reflecting on the
environment, plus collaborating with science (Bullot 2014: 511). Environmental
art and the related environmental ethics involve all our senses and emotions. This
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-made-by-walking-p07 149
https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/walter-de-maria-the-lightning-field
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/agnes-denes-prophetic-wheatfield-remains-as-relevant-as-ever
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-7000-oak-trees-ar00745
hetps://www.4culture.org/public_art/earthwork/
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