COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0004100
image_record_id
aahi0004100
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
The New York Earth Room
Image Title:
installation view
Work Dates (display):
1977
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2009-03-09
Work Creator (display):
Walter De Maria (American, 1935-2013)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
American sculptor. He studied history at the University of California, Berkeley (19537), and then art, under David Park (MA, 1959). In 1960 he moved to New York where he associated with other Californians including the sculptor and painter Robert Morris, the dancer Yvonne Rainer (b 1934) and the composer La Monte Young (b 1935). His sculpture of the early 1960s reveals a debt to Dada and other 20th-century avant-garde movements then under revision by young artists. His simple, often cryptically inscribed works owe much of their oblique spirit and deadpan execution to Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades, yet they explore the appeal of pure, usually serialized forms, which become characteristic of Minimalism. De Maria's first exhibitions consisted of machine-turned objects in highly finished wood, metals and other industrial materials. At the same time he began to experiment with alternative exhibition spaces such as the desert of the south-western USA. In early projects like Mile Long Drawing (1968; Mojave Desert, CA), comprising two parallel chalk lines extending over that distance, he showed an interest in austerity and economy of expressive terms, although always retaining monumentality. During the mid-1960s De Maria engaged in numerous other activities, including the composition of two musical recordings (Cricket Music, 1964; Ocean Music, 1968) and the production of two films (Three Circles and Two Lines in the Desert; Hard Core, both 1969), and for a brief period he was the drummer for the New York pop group Velvet Underground (1965). From 1969 De Maria's work was divided between pieces developed specifically for conventional exhibition spaces and land art proposals (see Land art). For New York Earth Room (1977; New York, Dia Art Found.) he brought 190 cubic m of soil into a 334 sq m. gallery space to create an environment where he attempted to close the schism between the civilized and the natural. In his later exhibition rooms he dealt with the polarities of science and the occult, mathematical progression and chaos and other opposing themes. He is perhaps most widely known for his vast, permanent work in the New Mexico wilderness, Lightning Field (1977), a rectangular plot pierced by 400 steel poles of even height in a region known for its frequent and sudden thunderstorms. The plainly artificial environment is subtly delimited by both its remote location and by the requirement of the visitors to remain at the site for 24 hours, thereby ensuring that the spectator invest in time and travel to view the work. This juxtaposition of nature and culture, artifice and entropy, serves as an index of his art. The delicate, if systematic, manipulation of isolated spaces is consistent throughout his work, and it is this persistence that allows him to claim that he feels 'proud to have started minimal art and Land art. (Derrick R. Cartwright. "De Maria, Walter." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 18 Mar. 2009 .)
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
interior
subject
interior
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
outdoors
subject
outdoors
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
permanence
subject
permanence
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
artists' materials
subject
artists' materials
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
displacement
subject
displacement
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
isolation
subject
isolation
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
environments (object groupings)
subject
environments (object groupings)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
nature
subject
nature
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
exhibitions
subject
exhibitions
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
earth
subject
earth
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
sculpture (visual works)
work_type
sculpture (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
installations (visual works)
work_type
installations (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
sculptures and installations
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
sculptures and installations
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
250 cubic yards of earth
Work Measurements (display):
22 in (H)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Dia Art Foundation
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
installation
Work Location (Geographic) name:
New York, New York
Image Source Reproduction citation:
Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. New York: Phaidon Press, 2007.
image_source_copy_from_print_name
Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. New York: Phaidon Press, 2007.
Image Source Reproduction citation
false
Image Source Reproduction refid:
978-0-7148-4314-8
Image Source Reproduction page number:
228
Image Source Reproduction plate-figure number:
230
Image Source Reproduction refid type:
ISBN
Image Rights (display):
© Dia Art Foundation
Image Rights fair use checklist:
1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.
Work Rights (display):
© Walter De Maria
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see