''Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art'' is a 2015 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by

James Crump James Crump is an American film director, writer, producer, art historian and curator. His films include ''Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe''; ''Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art''; and '' Antonio Lope ...

. ''Troublemakers'' chronicles the history of

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mo ...

in the 1960s and 1970s, when a group of radical New York artists began producing earthworks on a monumental scale in the desert spaces of the American southwest. The film follows the enigmatic careers of artists who use the earth itself as their primary medium, including

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

(

Spiral Jetty ''Spiral Jetty'' is a work of land art constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work by American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled ' ...

Walter De Maria Walter Joseph De MariaRoberta Smith (July 26, 2013)Walter De Maria, Artist on Grand Scale, Dies at 77 ''New York Times''. (October 1, 1935July 25, 2013) was an American artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer, who lived and worked in New Yor ...

(

The Lightning Field ''The Lightning Field'' (1977) is a land art work in Catron County, New Mexico, by sculptor Walter De Maria. It consists of 400 stainless steel poles with solid, pointed tips, arranged in a rectangular 1 mile × 1 kilometre grid array. It is mai ...

) and

Michael Heizer Michael Heizer (born 1944) is an American land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures. Working largely outside the confines of the traditional art spaces of galleries and museums, Heizer has redefined sculpture in term ...

(

Double Negative A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. This is typically used to convey a different shade of meaning from a strictly positive sentence ("You're not unattractive" vs "You ...

Reception

Eric Gibson of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' gave the film a positive review, writing, "A film that takes its place among the great art documentaries of the past half-century... filled with great moments, large and small... deftly captures the madcap ambition, grandeur and even sublimity of the works these artists created." Glenn Kenny of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in a NYT Critics' Pick called it a "thrilling documentary," writing "The film’s generous views of spectacular works like Smithson’s monumental (

) (the work projects into the Great Salt Lake in Utah) and Mr. Heizer’s (

) in Nevada (a huge trench bisected by a canyon) are best seen on the largest screen available." John DeFore of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called the film "a colorful and sometimes gorgeous primer on this influential moment." Jordan Hoffman, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' of London proclaimed "Forget ''Dawn of Justice'' – this is the best superhero team-up we’ll see at the cinema this year." Writing for ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', Patricia Zohn declared ''Troublemakers'' "does something that is rare for art documentaries: It is very beautiful and dynamic itself in examining work that is challenging. It meets the subject head-on." ''Troublemakers'' has a score of 94% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

and 65% on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Release

The film premiered at the

2015 New York Film Festival The 53rd New York Film Festival was held September 25 – October 11, 2015. The lineup consisted of seven sections: * Main Slate (26 films and four shorts programs) * Spotlight on Documentary (11 films and one shorts program) * Projections (14 prog ...

on October 1, 2015, and released theatrically on January 8, 2016, via

First Run Features First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. History First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film. In the 1980s, the company focused ...

References

External links

Official site for ''Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art''''Troublemakers'' at Rotten Tomatoes
*
Official site for James Crump
*{{IMDb name, id=2615851, name=James Crump

2015 films 2015 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about the visual arts Land art First Run Features films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films