Minimalists and Conceptualists: Richard Long, Jan Dibbets

Richard Long - Carrara Line, 1985, marble
Jan Dibbets - The Shortest Day of 1970 Photographed in His House Every Six Minutes from Sunrise to Sunset, gelatin silver prints on paper on aluminum; Flood Tide, 1969

On view at Hirshhorn (part of Panza Collection)

A huge space at Hirshhorn, devoted to these two artists, the British Richard Long and the Dutch Jan Dibbets.

Richard Long's horizontal sculpture seemed to me a perfect example of Minimalism: a long line of marble rocks. Actually it was also a piece of Land Art, you should have imagined this row of rocks somewhere on a spacious natural area, and it was for me a proof of the birth of Land Art from Minimalism.

It was good that the two works of Jan Dibbets were together with Carrara Line: putting together Minimalism and Conceptualism was very helpful to understand the latter.

There was a clear ressemblance: the two works of Jan Dibbets were also related to Land Art (let's say, indirectly, through photo), but they were carrying also one of the dimensions of Conceptual Art (and I realized here at Hirshhorn, at the exhibition of Panza Collection, the fact that Conceptualism is expressed in various ways).

For Jan Dibbets, it seemes to me, a Conceptual artwork is the accomplishment of a project. The Shortest Day of 1970 Photographed in His House Every Six Minutes from Sunrise to Sunset is gorgeous: the main point is that it is the voutcome of a project in which the artist stayed all day long with a camera, clicking on the button every six minutes.

Jan Dibbets - Flood Tide, 1969
gelatin silver prints

(Hirshhorn Museum)

(Contemporary Art)