Artwork
A six hour run from Dartmoor to Exmoor
A six hour run from Dartmoor to Exmoor is a drawing by Richard Long. It dates from 1975 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
This 1975 drawing by Richard Long documents a six-hour run between Dartmoor and Exmoor. Executed as a linear trace on paper, it translates a real-time physical movement into a minimalist graphic. The work belongs to Long’s broader practice in which bodily motion becomes a sculptural act, recorded not through monumentality but through quiet, direct notation.
Subject & Meaning
The subject is the artist’s own journey across the English countryside, a transient act erased by time and weather. The drawn line does not depict scenery but the path taken—emphasizing duration, effort, and the impermanence of human presence in nature. The accompanying text grounds the abstraction in concrete fact, inviting contemplation of the unseen experience behind the mark.
Technique & Style
The drawing uses a single continuous line, carefully traced from an Ordnance Survey map, rendered in ink on paper. Its precision is deliberate, avoiding expressive gesture in favor of neutrality. The style is austere, aligning with Conceptual art’s preference for information over ornament, reducing the journey to its essential spatial coordinates.
History & Provenance
Created in 1975, the work emerged during a period when Long was refining his practice of walking as art. It was produced shortly after his early land interventions in remote areas and reflects his growing interest in mapping personal movement as a legitimate artistic medium. The drawing has since been included in major institutional collections focused on postwar British art.
Context
Long’s work responds to 1960s and 70s shifts in art toward dematerialization and process. While contemporaries explored performance or installation, Long turned to the landscape itself as both medium and subject. His use of maps and minimal notation distinguished his approach from romanticized depictions of nature, favoring empirical record over emotional interpretation.
Legacy
This piece helped establish walking as a legitimate artistic practice within contemporary art. Its influence extends to later artists who use movement, mapping, and duration as conceptual tools. The work’s enduring relevance lies in its quiet assertion that presence, even when fleeting, can be meaningfully documented without embellishment.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sir Richard Julian Long (born 2 June 1945) is an English sculptor, painter, photographer, and one of the best-known British land artists.
