Following hard on the heels of Long’s 2007 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art survey, this major retrospective is the artist’s first large-scale show in London in nearly twenty years. Curators Helen Little and Clarrie Wallis have assembled about eighty of Long’s stone sculptures, expansive mud wall drawings, photographs, and text-based pieces to trace the development of his practice, from early, iconic land interventions such as A Line Made by Walking, 1967, to new work. Significantly, the venue—Tate Britain, as opposed to Tate Modern—could lead visitors to a lazy view of Long as an English pastoralist. However, the show’s scale, Long’s formal diversity, and his perspicuous responses to encounters with nature and culture should allow for that reading to be countered, suggesting a far wider reach and relevance to his practice. |