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In the 1960s-1970s, more and more American artists began to question institutions and authorities. As they sought to make stronger connections between their work and the outside world, context became of paramount importance. Artists who had brought natural elements into the gallery started to go outside to work in situ. Land Art also coincided with the “back to the earth” movements and environmental awareness, when renewed attention was being focused on the earth, the exhaustible resources of nature and the threat technology posed to nature's balance. The aim of this article is to examine the contradictory nature of Land Art through the works known as “earthworks,” that is to say whose medium is earth, but it is also concerned with their monumental and site-specific dimension. The article also focuses on the construction of a relationship between art and environment and its contradictory impacts and meanings at the social, cultural and political levels.