Friday, March 7, 2014


Walter De Maria
·      Walter is a “reclusive” American Artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer but I am most interested in his installations. A lot of his work was only achievable with precise measurements.
·       One of the pieces he is most known for is the lightning Field In the New Mexico desert.

·      “He realized Land art projects in the deserts of the southwest US, with the aim of creating situations where the landscape and nature, light and weather would become an intense, physical and psychic experience.”
·      “It consists of 400 stainless steel posts arranged in a calculated grid over an area of 1 mile × 1 km. The time of day and weather change the optical effects. It also lights up during thunderstorms. The field is commissioned and maintained by Dia Art Foundation, which he was the founding director of.”
·      “The possibility that lightning would strike the poles was rarely fulfilled, but the piece could look glorious at dawn or sunset, and its hard-won perfection (all the points of the poles were at the same level) brought a striking sense of order to the desert.”

·      His Use of stainless stele allows him to attract and ground the lightning to the earth.
·      He said that this installation is supposed to make the viewer think about the earth and how it connects with the universe.
·      This piece was really successful in making viewers feel the connection between the two, and I think that is why this is his best piece.
·      I love this artist’s work, because of how successfully he communicated the connection between the universe and the earth, and how he brings order to the chaotic desert in his art.
·      “The 2000 Sculpture” (1992), by Walter De Maria, an example of his groupings of ordered elements using precise measurements
·      He showed me a new way to look at art by, harnessing uncontrollable elements like lightning.
·      He shows the unpredictable side of art that I am not familiar with.
·      Studding his works of art allows me to look at art through a perspective that I am not used to.
Sources

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