Richard Long's 'A Line Made by Walking' Gets Critical Study from Afterall

Afterall has published an important analysis of Richard Long's influential 1967 piece 'A Line Made by Walking,' authored by Dieter Roelstraete. This work, created during Long's time as a student at St. Martin's School of Art in London, involved traversing a straight line in the English countryside and capturing the resulting path in black and white photographs. It is regarded as a pivotal moment for a novel form of art emerging in Europe and the Americas, which merges organic, ephemeral, non-material, and performative aspects to challenge the art establishment. Additionally, the publication contains a correction regarding a misidentified piece by Keith Arnatt: on page 61, plate 18 incorrectly displays the wrong title; the accurate work is 'Self-Burial (Television Interference Project)' from 1969, part of the Tate Collection, featuring nine photographs arranged in a square grid, each measuring 467 x 467mm unframed or 474 x 473mm framed. The reference to this piece on page 54 should also be amended. The book can be purchased through MIT Press and previewed on Google Books.