The study of landscape design is essentially a study of human culture; the way people shape their environment reflects a sense of their place in the world. Traditionally western landscape design has veered between the Classic and Romantic traditions, pitting European formality against English naturalism. During the twentieth century however, these stylistic polarities gave way to new concerns as designers looked increasingly to the historical, political and cultural context of their sites. As the New World was often in the forefront of this movement, this Gardens Trust four-lecture series on American Moderns will examine key landscapes from the two continents, exploring the designs which pushed the boundaries of the profession by pioneering new approaches, reflecting new philosophies and challenging assumptions about the form, use and meaning of landscape. You may purchase tickets for the entire series through Eventbrite for £16, or individual sessions costing £5, at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/american-moderns-tickets-670807291667 Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

Week Four on December 5 is Land Art and Landscape. In the 1960s the boundary between landscape design and contemporary art was breached in a movement known as Land Art. While reacting against the commercialization of the art market, Land Artists tended to be politically active, reflecting the ideology of the budding ecology movement and railing against the increasing disengagement of the arts from social issues. Often choosing inaccessible locations and using the site itself as their canvas, Land Artists used the fabric of the earth – water, soil, rock and vegetation – as their primary materials, while paying homage to the historical uses of the site. As Land Artists depended largely on wealthy patrons or private foundations to create their monumental – and often monumentally expensive – projects, the movement faltered during the economic downturn of the 1970s and was further undermined by the co-opting of the works by commercial galleries. Nonetheless Land Artists such as Maya Lin, Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt and Michael Heizer continue to create extraordinary landscapes – wave fields, spiral jetties, lightning fields, and whole concrete mega-cities – which challenge our idea of landscape design.

Speaker Katie Campbell is a writer and garden historian. She lectures widely, has taught at Birkbeck, Bristol and Buckingham universities; she writes for various publications, and leads art and garden tours. Her most recent book, Cultivating the Renaissance (Routledge, 2021) , explores the evolution of Renaissance ideas and aesthetics through the Medici Tuscan villas. Her previous book, British Gardens in Time (Quarto, 2014), accompanied the BBC television series. Earlier works include Paradise of Exiles (Francis Lincoln, 2009), looking at the late nineteenth century Anglo-American garden-makers in Florence, Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design (Frances Lincoln, 2006) and Policies and Pleasaunces (Barn Elms, 2007), a Guide to Scotland’s Gardens.