Richard Long has been recognized for his significant contribution to the Conceptual and Minimal art movements of the early 1970s. He is usually associated with British Land Art, those artists creating earthworks in nature. His works most often include objects and substances taken from nature such as mud, and his pieces document his relationship with the landscapes of the places he visits.

An avid traveler, Long uses available materials from the sites he visits; silt from rivers, stone and wood fragments found on location. Not only are his materials organic, so are his arrangements. Long is notorious for using natural form, creating spirals, lines and circles sometimes even his footprints are incorporated. They express his presence, his experience, privately within a landscape.

He has created gallery installations built out of quarry stone taken from Cornwall as well as drawings applied directly to museum and gallery walls.
Long photographs all of his works, and these are shown in the museums and galleries as well as the physical installations.

Long was born in Bristol in 1945. He attended the West of England College of Art in Bristol (1962-1966) and went on to study at St. Martin's School of Art, London (1966-1968). He has exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, The Tate Gallery and the Whitechapel Gallery all in London, as well as at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Source:
"Art in America"
Jack Flam; Donald Marron: "The Paine Webber Collection"