Richard Long Commission Opening 10 May at The National Gallery, London, United Kingdom

30 April 2025

Opening on 10 May 2025 a spectacular five-metre mud work has been made on site at the National Gallery by the artist Sir Richard Long. 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.

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.

Find out more via The National Gallery.

Image: Sir Richard Long in front of his Mud Sun, 2025; River Avon mud on gesso, © Richard Long; Photo: The National Gallery, London