A sense of adventure powered the American land art movement of the 1960s and 70s. Artists went in search of remote and untamed places in which to dream up massive site-specific sculptures. Some of their creations have since become beloved visitor destinations, like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) on the Great Salt Lake in Utah and Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977), which involves an overnight stay in the New Mexico wilderness.
Land art has never been easy to see. The journey—and the risk of getting lost along the way—are part of the…
