Mountain Skylines, 1993

Painting PICOS DE EUROPA | A FOURTEEN DAY WALKING JOURNEY ON ROADS AND PATHS FROM THE ATLANTIC COAST UP INTO THE MOUNTAIN AND BACK DOWN TO THE WATERS EDGE | NORTHERN SPAIN | LATE SUMMER 1993

Dimensions: 20.50 x 14 cm

The conceptual artist, painter and sculptor Hamish Fulton, also known as the walking artist, places walking at the centre of his artistic work and thus documents his wanderings primarily with the medium of photography. The artist himself takes the view that walking, or walking itself, is a form of art, with the artist's walks lasting from a day to several weeks. After studying sculpture from 1966 to 1968 at Central Saint Martin College of Art and Design, he followed this up with further studies at the Royal College of Art between 1968 and 1969.

Despite his conceptual art, Fulton himself sees himself in the tradition of British landscape painting and uses individual photographs or a series of photographs to capture individual moments of perception. Alongside photographs, some of which seem prosaic, which are a simple representation of what the artist perceives, other works are supplemented by texts. By expanding the content with words, the image is supplemented in a poetic way, making the mood while the artist is walking comprehensible and accessible to the viewer.

Besides nature itself, Fulton is primarily concerned with man's perception of nature. This led to the artist inviting participants to art walks and thus becoming part of the artist's performance. The artist transfers this concept to the present and takes current developments into account, after which an art walk was conceived in 2017 entitled Walking without a Smartphone.

The British artist Hamish Fulton was already represented at Documenta 5 and 6 in the 1970s and at Documenta 7 in 1982. Works by the artist can be found in numerous international museums and public and private collections worldwide.