Alan Sonfist (born March 26, 1946[1]) is a New York City based American artist best known as a "pioneer"[2] and a "trailblazer"[2] of the Land or Earth Art movement.

[3] He first gained prominence for his "Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia Place in New York City's Greenwich Village.

[6] In Nature: The End of Art, environmentalist Jonathan Carpenter writes that "To review the public sculptures of Alan Sonfist since the 1960s is to witness the reemergence of the socially aware artist.

As the Financial Times writes: "One of the pioneers of environmental art, Sonfist's passion for nature was triggered by his childhood nearby a hemlock forest, which has now died.

[8] Beginning with his first major commissioned work, "Time Landscapes" in Greenwich Village, NYC, Sonfist received critical acclaim for his innovative use of urban spaces to design havens of nature and green art.

After his breakthrough Time Landscape of New York, Sonfist gradually built a reputation as a father of the environmental art movement, presenting a new and unique harmony between ecology and artistry.

Recently, Dr. Robert Rosenblum wrote an introduction to Sonfist's "Nature: The End of Art" which was distributed by Thames and Hudson, and published by Gil Ori.

[2] Throughout his career, Sonfist has given several keynote speeches for public and private events and organizations such as Pennsylvania State University, the Southern Sculpture Conference, and the American Landscape Association in Miami.

This ambitious and carefully researched undertaking consists of a network of sites throughout New York City's five boroughs, where sections of land have been restored to the way they might have appeared in the seventeenth century, before the advent of urbanization.

To complete the La Guardia Place site, he had to weave his way through community groups, local politicians, real estate interests, several arms of city government, art patrons, and their lawyers.

It was only after shaping alliances with influential neighborhood politicians and agreeing to important compromises with community groups that Sonfist finally brought Time Landscape to completion.

Unlike the stark contrast of, say, a geometric steel sculpture, Sonfist's work blends in.” [15]Birth by Spear (2010) reintroduced the original olive forest to Tuscany.

The dirt wall that forms the bird’s outline is also a reference to early history: the earliest evidence of settlements in this region are Celtic ringforts (ca.

In stark contrast to the characteristically grey–white bark of live aspen trees, the sparsely spaced trunks in this composition are charred black and missing their leaves and branches.

[22]Alan Sonfist's more recent works include the Circles of Life,[23] in Kansas City, the Disappearing Forest of Germany,[24] in Cologne, and the Endangered Species of New England[25] in Lincoln, Massachusetts, part of the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

In the same way, Paradise will grow and transform with the environment into a naturalized configuration, while offering a haven for wildlife and an important stopover on the arduous migration of birds between Europe and Africa each year.

"The concept of a year round natural microcosmic forest, which would contain plants and trees indigenous to pre-colonial New York is fresh and intriguing and is desperately needed for our city."

– Ed Koch, Former New York City Mayor[2] "After making art of quiet distinction for over 30 years, Alan Sonfist suddenly finds himself close to the spotlight.

-Joshua Taylor, former director of the National Collection of Fine Art[2] Few artists have had such an unswerving, or generative, interest in the landscape (physical, social, historical) that surrounds us.