Screenprint on board
Text and Language
Environment
Tate Modern
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-long-cbe-1525" aria-label="More by Richard Long CBE" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Richard Long CBE</a>
In Cloud
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
abstraction
Ben Macdui
cloud
documentary
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
leisure and pastimes
Moray
non-representational
places
recreational activities
Scotland
text
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
walking
weather
<p><span>In the Cloud</span> is a large framed text work, printed on off-white paper. The title words ‘IN THE CLOUD’ are printed in red capital letters in Gill Sans typeface. Below is a text printed in black capitals in the same font:</p>
paper unique screenprint board
24 September 2010 – 27 February 2011
2011-02-27
24 September 2010 – 27 February 2011
2011-02-27
2010-09-24
Ulster Museum (Belfast, UK)
http://www.ulstermuseum.org.uk
2010-09-24
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Richard Long
Loan-out
21 October 2011 – 17 December 2011
2011-12-17
21 October 2011 – 17 December 2011
2011-12-17
2011-10-21
Abbot Hall Art Gallery (Kendal, UK)
http://www.abbothall.org.uk
2011-10-21
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Richard Long
Loan-out
30 November 2013 – 2 March 2014
2014-03-02
30 November 2013 – 2 March 2014
2014-03-02
2013-11-30
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (Stoke-on-Trent, UK)
http://www.stoke.gov.uk/museums
2013-11-30
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Richard Long
Loan-out
4 October 2014 – 10 January 2015
2015-01-10
4 October 2014 – 10 January 2015
2015-01-10
2014-10-04
Burton Art Gallery and Museum (Bideford, UK)
2014-10-04
ARTIST ROOMS 2014: Richard Long
Loan-out
27 May 2018 – 16 September 2018
2018-09-16
27 May 2018 – 16 September 2018
2018-09-16
2018-05-27
Gallery Oldham (Oldham, UK)
http://www.galleryoldham.org.uk
2018-05-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2018: Richard Long
Loan-out
22 February 2020 – 31 October 2020
2020-10-31
22 February 2020 – 31 October 2020
2020-10-31
2020-02-22
Thelma Hulbert Gallery (Honiton, UK)
2020-02-22
Richard Long
Loan-out
27 February 2023
27 February 2023
2023-02-27
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2023-02-27
ARTIST ROOMS Texts
Collection based display
In the Cloud
image: 1055 × 1550 mm
frame: 1064 × 1560 × 40 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>In the Cloud</i> is a large framed text work, printed on off-white paper. The title words ‘IN THE CLOUD’ are printed in red capital letters in Gill Sans typeface. Below is a text printed in black capitals in the same font:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>ALONG AN 8 DAY WALK ACROSS SCOTLAND</blockquote>
<blockquote>¾ HOUR IN CLOUD</blockquote>
<blockquote>WHILE GOING OVER BEN MACDUI</blockquote>
<blockquote>THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE WALK</blockquote>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>COAST TO COAST WEST TO EAST 1991</blockquote>
<p>The text is a description of a walk that Long took in the Cairngorms national park in Scotland in 1991. The artist has been making works in Scotland since he was a student, most notably <i>Ben Nevis Hitchhike</i> 1967 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-untitled-t02065" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T02065</span></a>), for which the artist hitchhiked and walked from London to the peak of Britain’s highest mountain. Scotland is a suitable place for Long to make his walking works for as the artist has remarked, most of it ‘is still wilderness, most of the Highlands are still possible for people to walk’ (cited in Tufnell 2007, p.71).</p>
<p>
<i>In the Cloud</i> describes the moment Long walked over Ben Macdui, the tallest peak in the Cairngorms, and records how much time the artist spent enveloped in cloud. Another text work, <i>A Cloudless Walk</i> 1996 (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh), describes a walk determined by the length of time the artist walked until he reached a cloud.</p>
<p>The textual description of the walk provided by <i>In the Cloud</i> avoids mentioning extraneous details or using verbose language. Long has stated that ‘A text is a description, or story, of a work in the landscape. It is the simplest and most elegant way to present a particular idea, which could be a walk, or a sculpture, or both’ (cited in Tufnell 2007, p.45). The artist’s first text work was made in 1969 for the seminal exhibition of conceptual art <i>When Attitudes Become Form: Live in Your Head</i> at the Kunsthalle Bern (see Wallis 2009, p.47). That work, called <i>A Walking Tour in the Berner Oberland: When Attitudes Become Form</i> (whereabouts unknown), consisted of a text that included the first half of the work’s title proceeded by the artist’s name and the dates on which the ‘walking tour’ took place. In the same way as <i>In the Cloud</i>, this early work recorded a walk in pared-down and impersonal language. This use of language is characteristic of conceptualism, but for Long it is essential that the idea presented in the text has been executed, whereas other conceptual artists who make text-based work, such as Lawrence Weiner, privilege the idea over the possible realisation of an action. Regarding the use of text in his work, Long has commented:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>one of the reasons why I started making text works is because it gave me another possibility, not using the camera or not necessarily making a sculpture. I can use words and they can give me different possibilities than I would get from using a camera. So, taking photographs does a certain type of job, records one moment, makes an image. And words do a different job. They can usually record the whole idea of a walk. They have a different function, sometimes a more complete function.</blockquote>
<blockquote>(Cited in Tufnell 2007, p.69.)</blockquote>
<p>Other text works by Long in the ARTIST ROOMS collection include <i>Waterlines</i> 1989 (Tate <span>AL00205</span>), <i>60 Minute Walk</i> 1990 (Tate <span>AL00207</span>) and <i>Sound Line</i> 1991 (Tate <span>AL00206</span>).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Richard Long (ed.), <i>Richard Long: Walking the Line</i>, London 2002, reproduced p.22.<br/>Ben Tufnell (ed.), <i>Richard Long:</i> <i>Selected Statements &amp; Interviews</i>, London 2007.<br/>Clarrie Wallis (ed.), <i>Richard Long: Heaven and Earth</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009.<br/>William Malpas, <i>The Art of Richard Long</i>, Maidstone 2011, pp.281, 290.</p>
<p>Ruth Burgon<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>March 2013</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS</i>.</p>
</div>

Summary
2013-07-16T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction Ben Macdui cloud documentary emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities leisure and pastimes Moray non-representational places recreational activities Scotland text UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features walking weather