Sahara Circle
- Artist: Richard Long CBE
- Date: 1988
- Medium: Digital print on paper mounted onto aluminium
- Dimensions: image: 159 x 1276 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Sahara Circle” by Richard Long CBE. Created in 1988, the work is a digital print on paper mounted onto aluminium, a record of a walk through the Hoggar region of the Sahara in southern Algeria. Long literally laid out a ring of rocks, carving a circular clearing in a patch of broken stones. He explains that circles belong to all people at all times, a universal, timeless shape that carries emotional power without symbolism. The photograph focuses on the ring, with a dramatic stone finger jutting into the horizon above the flat, barren desert. Long’s practice stems from walking itself as a gesture of mark‑making, transforming the landscape into a temporary sculpture that he then captures and brings into the gallery as a photograph. The piece is a clear example of his exploration of geometry, abstraction, and the relationship between human action and the natural world.
See it in person
Sahara Circle is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
