Summer Circle

Summer Circle is one of the largest examples of Richard Long’s “stone circles” that evoke ancient sites found throughout the artist’s home country. The pieces of Delabole slate, a stone native to the Cornwall region of England, are rough-hewn yet come together in a nearly perfect form. Since the late 1960s, Long has created works developed from extended walks through nature. Like other so-called Land artists who emerged on both sides of the Atlantic, he viewed the landscape as both arena and material. While making epic treks through remote areas across the world, Long subtly intervenes in the terrain, rearranging a few stones or simply leaving behind the trace of his footsteps. These experiences also inspire artworks comprised of natural materials and universally recognizable shapes and symbols. A circle, Long has said, “is such an open system and [it] can be a vehicle for perhaps any idea under the sun.”