Alan Sonfist
1946–

Introduction

Alan Sonfist (born March 26, 1946) is a New York City based American artist best known as a "pioneer" and a "trailblazer" of the Land or Earth Art movement.

He first gained prominence for his "Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia Place in New York City's Greenwich Village. Proposed in 1965, "Time Landscape" the environmental sculpture took over ten years of careful planning with New York City. It was eventually landmarked by the city. It has often been cited as the first urban forest of its kind. More recently, Sonfist has continued to create artworks within the natural landscape, inaugurating a one-acre (4,000 m) landscape project titled "The Lost Falcon of Westphalia" on Prince Richard's estate outside Cologne, Germany in 2005.

In Nature: The End of Art, environmentalist Jonathan Carpenter writes that "To review the public sculptures of Alan Sonfist since the 1960s is to witness the reemergence of the socially aware artist. His sculptures reassert the historical role of the artist as an active initiator of ideas within society. Each of his artworks fundamentally redefine what sculpture is, who the artist is, and how art should function for its public."

Wikidata identifier

Q2520789

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed October 25, 2024.

Introduction

American artist.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, environmental artist, multimedia artist, painter, photographer, sculptor

ULAN identifier

500029371

Names

Alan Sonfist

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed October 25, 2024.


On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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