Cerne Abbas Walk
- Artist: Richard Long CBE
- Date: 1975
- Medium: Ink, typescript, photograph on map and photograph, gelatin silver prints on paper
- Dimensions: support: 687 × 697 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Cerne Abbas Walk” by Richard Long. In 1975 Long set out on a six‑day walk around the chalk figure that sits on the Dorset hillside. The piece combines an Ordnance Survey map with ink, text and a black‑and‑white photograph of the giant itself. On the map the route is traced in bold, showing how Long retraced roads and even cart tracks, keeping within a six‑mile circle centred on the chalk figure. The caption at the top reads, “A SIX DAY WALK OVER ALL ROADS, LANES AND DOUBLE TRACKS INSIDE A SIX MILE WIDE CIRCLE CENTRED ON THE GIANT OF CERNE ABBAS.” The lower photograph is a gelatin‑silver print taken by Long from a viewpoint along the walk, capturing the 180‑foot high figure he bought from a local shop. Long’s work turns walking into a visual record, turning the landscape itself into a narrative canvas. This piece was acquired in 1976 and has appeared in numerous exhibitions across Britain.
See it in person
Cerne Abbas Walk 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.
