Five-metre mud work made on site by Sir Richard Long at the top of the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing staircase

A spectacular five-metre mud work has been made on site at the National Gallery by the British artist 
Sir Richard Long (b. 1945), opening to the public on 10 May 2025.

Dramatically situated at the top of the grand staircase of the newly transformed Sainsbury Wing, 'Mud Sun' is a monumental, site-specific work, created by hand from tidal mud of the River Avon, close to the artist’s home. 

The new commission will be the first work of art to greet visitors to the Gallery on 10 May with the opening of the Sainsbury Wing and the Gallery’s C C Land: The Wonder of Art, the biggest and most ambitious rehang of the Gallery’s collection.  

The primeval disc of gestural swipes and marks invokes the process of creation and welcomes visitors both to the newly re-opened Sainsbury Wing galleries of paintings from the Medieval and Early Renaissance (1260‒1550) to its left as you approach from the top of the staircase; and to rooms devoted to the artists of the Renaissance (1500‒1600) to its right. The work complements the commission of Bridget Riley’s wall painting Messengers created in 2019 at the other end of the Gallery building in the Annenberg Court. 

'Mud Sun', supported by Lisson Gallery, has been donated to the National Gallery by Dr Didi Mei Yi Wong for its 200th anniversary and will enter its Contextual Collection.* It is the second work by Sir Richard Long to be commissioned by the Gallery following his 'River Avon Mud Crescent' (2023), which was created for its Saint Francis of Assisi exhibition (6 May–30 July 2023.)  

Long is one of Britain’s most celebrated and respected artists. For more than 60 years, the artist’s poetic work has explored mark-making as the most fundamental of human cultural activities. Using his body as an artistic tool and simple materials, typically earth, mud or stone, as his medium, he distils the creation of art into primal forms and shapes made by the human hand.

Born in 1945, Richard Long lives and works in London and Bristol. He represented Britain at the 37th Venice Biennale (1976) and won the Turner Prize in 1989. He received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture (1990), has been elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2001), awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in the field of sculpture (2009), was made a CBE in 2013 and was knighted in the 2018 honours list.

Sir Richard Long says: ‘It’s about different types of energy. It’s to show the nature of natural forces. There’s the force of gravity, and the wateriness of water which is demonstrated by the speed of my hand. And it’s my energy that makes the splashes. I make the hand marks and nature – gravity – makes the other half of the image. So in a way, the circle is just a vehicle to show all the different energies that come together in this particular work.’

Daniel F Herrmann, Ardalan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects at the National Gallery, says: ‘Richard Long is one of the most influential artists working in Britain today. His compelling mud work Mud Sun, is created from the simplest of materials and processes, giving sublime form to humble mud and clay. It is a celebration of artistic creativity from the Neolithic to the present day – we are delighted that it welcomes our visitors into the galleries of paintings from 1250 to the Renaissance.’

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, says: ‘Richly allusive and powerfully gestural Mud Sun will greet millions of visitors as they ascend the Sainsbury Wing staircase and enter the picture galleries. Sir Richard Long’s new work marking the Gallery’s Bicentenary speaks to geometry, creativity and the mysterious alchemy of art.’ 

Notes to editors

H255: Richard Long 
'Mud Sun', 2025
River Avon mud on gesso 
H 492 x W 613 cm.
Commissioned by the National Gallery, supported by Dr Didi Mei Yi Wong, 2025 
© Richard Long  
Photo credit: The National Gallery, London
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/ 

*Richard Long 'Mud Sun' - An acquisition for the National Gallery’s Contextual Collection
The National Gallery’s Contextual Collection consists of works of art and objects, acquired by the Gallery since its foundation which illuminate the history of the Gallery, its buildings, its collection and its relationship with contemporary artists.

The Contextual Collection includes portraits of former National Gallery staff, directors, trustees and benefactors; depictions of the Gallery’s buildings and their interiors at different periods; internal and external architectural sculpture and mosaics forming part of the Gallery’s fabric; and furniture and objects that have a significant connection to the Gallery. It also includes commissions, works of art by contemporary artists, including Artists in Residence or Associate Artists, as well as other artists whose work has been the subject of temporary exhibitions at the National Gallery, or who have worked directly from the collection.

Richard Long

Sir Richard Long has been a pioneer of conceptual art in Britain since he created 'A Line Made by Walking' in 1967. For this ephemeral work, the artist left a trodden track in the grass, a fixed trace of movement and human presence that would soon disappear again. The work had considerable influence in the development of conceptual art, allowing for time, space and distance themselves to become subjects of Long’s work and for walking to become his medium.

Long expanded his walks to wilderness regions all over the world, including a walk in the Alps that was documented by his first text work for the seminal exhibition of Minimal and Conceptual works entitled 'When Attitude Becomes Form' at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1969. In the 1980s, Long began making new types of mud works using handprints applied directly to the wall. He also became known for his large sculptures of lines and circles from slate, driftwood, footprints or stone, often found and arranged during his walks, or sourced from quarries near exhibition sites. Long’s walks and ephemeral works are often recorded through photographs and accompanied by maps and text works, where measurements of time and distance, place names, phenomena and encounters become vocabulary for both original ideas and powerful, condensed narratives.

Richard Long was born in Bristol, UK in 1945 and he lives and works between London and Bristol. He studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol (1962–65), then St Martin’s School of Art, London (1966–68). Major solo exhibitions include Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2023); M Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (2021); Chateau La Coste, Provence, France (2021); De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands (2019); Fondation CAB, Brussels, Belgium (2018); Houghton Hall, Norfolk, UK (2017); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2015); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2010); Tate Britain, London, UK (2009); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2007); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA (2006); National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (1996); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA (1994); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (1986). He represented Britain at the 37th Venice Biennale (1976) and won the Turner Prize in 1989. He received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture (1990), has been elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2001), awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in the field of sculpture (2009), made a CBE in 2013 and was knighted in the 2018 Honours List.

NG200: 200 years of the National Gallery  

From 10 May 2024, the 200th anniversary of the Gallery’s foundation, a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination started across the UK, and around the world, and at our home in London. This has led us into our third century of bringing people and paintings together. For more information go to: nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ng200-programme  

The National Gallery

The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to care for and enhance the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free. nationalgallery.org.uk  

Lisson Gallery

Lisson Gallery is one of the most influential and longest-running international contemporary art galleries in the world. Today the gallery supports and promotes the work of more than 70 international artists across spaces in London, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Beijing. Established in 1967 by Nicholas Logsdail, Lisson Gallery pioneered the early careers of important Minimal and Conceptual artists such as Art & Language, Carl Andre, Daniel Buren, Donald Judd, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long and Robert Ryman among many others. It still works with many of these artists and others of that generation, from Carmen Herrera and Olga de Amaral to Hélio Oiticica and Lee Ufan. In its second decade the gallery introduced significant British sculptors to the public for the first time, including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Anish Kapoor, Shirazeh Houshiary and Julian Opie. Since 2000, the gallery has gone on to represent many more leading international artists such as Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei, John Akomfrah, Liu Xiaodong, Otobong Nkanga, Pedro Reyes, Sean Scully, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Wael Shawky. It is also responsible for raising the international profile of a younger generation of artists including Dana Awartani, Cory Arcangel, Garrett Bradley, Ryan Gander, Josh Kline, Hugh Hayden, Haroon Mirza, Laure Prouvost and Cheyney Thompson.

More information and book tickets for events at nationalgallery.org.uk

X, Twitter @nationalgallery 
Facebook @thenationalgallery 
Instagram @nationalgallery 
YouTube @nationalgallerylondon 
TikTok @nationalgallerylondon 
Threads @nationalgallery

Features and film are at nationalgallery.org.uk/stories

Press enquiries

National Gallery Press Office on 020 7747 2865 or email press.external@nationalgallery.org.uk

Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/