The Lightning Field Catron County, NM, USA

On a high desert plain in western , Walter De Maria (b.1935) had 400 stainless-steel poles installed as lightning rods. Each of the polished metal poles is spaced about 67 m (220 ft) apart, and together the 16 rows of 25 poles form a grid measuring 1.6 × 1 km (1 × 0.62 miles). The poles are all 5 cm (2 in ) in diameter but they vary in height from 4.5 to 7.9 m (14.8 to 25.9 ft) and are installed into the earth at varying depths so that their tips form a level plane regardless of the fluctuations in height of the uneven desert ground below. However, the art of this work is not to be found in the form of the grid, but in its interaction with the forces of nature. The , who originally commissioned the work, continues to maintain the site and provide transport and overnight accommodation for visitors with advance reservations. During the visiting season, which runs from May until the end of October, up to six people at a time can stay for one night in a wooden cabin at the site. One can never predict when lightning will strike, but when a storm does occur it is an awesome phenomenon to behold. Striking the terrain not far from the viewers’ cabin, the lightning bolts provide a sublime, fearsome and breathtaking experience. When a lightning storm is not raging, the site still provides visitors with a beautiful and contemplative experience. Human scale appears miniscule in this natural landscape far removed from the sights and sounds of civilization. During the day, visitors are encouraged to walk around the field and consider the ways in which the grid maps the wild terrain. At an elevation of 2,195 m (7,201 ft) above sea level, there are no obstructions blocking the view of the vast sky. The few mountains and rock formations in the distance lie low on the horizon. One sees the open sky surrounding the desert and observes its ever- changing light. At dusk and dawn in particular, the sky is ablaze with colour metamorphoses; turning on the spot, the viewer can see clearly from one horizon to the other.

1. 1977. 400 stainless steel poles Area: c.1.6 × 1 km / 1 × 0.62 miles 1 74—75 Judd Foundation Marfa, TX, USA

Donald Judd moved from the hustle of the New York art world to Marfa, Texas, in 1972. Having first visited the small community while on a bus trip to California in 1946, Judd was entranced by the expanse of the desert landscape and clear blue skies that are dramatically framed by nearby mountains. Eventually purchasing a variety of buildings in town, the decommissioned Army post (Fort D. A. Russell) and a ranch near the border, Judd developed the , a contemporary art museum, and, later, the Judd Foundation in order to maintain his personal living and working spaces and archives in New York and Marfa, and to develop scholarly programmes. In Marfa, Judd pursued his explorations of the relationships generated by objects situated in unique spaces. He purchased the former offices of the Quartermaster Corps and two adjacent buildings, and then he designed courtyards, several 1 3 additional structures and a swimming pool, and surrounded the whole with adobe walls to produce a compound for his residence and studio, La Mansana de Chinati, also known as The Block. The structures in The Block contain examples of Judd’s art and furniture, an array of his personal artefacts and collections, and his library of more than 10,000 volumes. A former bank became the Architecture Studio, housing early paintings and drawings by Judd and a collection of modernist furniture and paintings. The Cobb House contains Judd paintings produced between 1956 and 1958, and the Whyte Building houses significant paintings from 1960 to 1962 and furniture by Rudolf M. Schindler that Judd commissioned in 1991. The former Safeway supermarket has become The Art Studio, where a series of long worktables and shelving display Judd’s designs, providing opportunity for learning about the development of his concepts and his work process. The unique buildings in Marfa preserve Judd’s meticulous installations of his own art that he produced at various stages of his career as well as his organization of his personal belongings and his workspaces. Together they provide insight into Judd’s critical and artistic commitments.

1. La Mansana de Chinati/The Block, Judd’s residence and studio at Marfa 2. North-east studio, housing works specifically selected by Judd for the space 3. West studio, with exposed brickwork dating back to the site’s previous use as a clothing factory 4. Art studio, with protypes of Judd’s works on display atop work benches 2 4 88—89 Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen Minneapolis, MN, USA

When the Walker Art Center commissioned Spoonbridge and Cherry for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in 1985, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen had already established a decade of collaboration on large-scale public works. However, they had never worked together on a fountain piece, which imposed not only topographical constraints, but also required distinct functional elements. Recontextualizing ordinary objects and adapting them to the scale of the site in the garden, Spoonbridge and Cherry playfully combines the functional and the fantastic, as well as art and the everyday into a uniquely light-hearted and popular example of public art. Household items and foodstuff have appeared in Oldenburg’s work since the 1960s. In this collaboration with van Bruggen a spoon has been rescaled to span a body of standing water in the shape of a linden seed, inspired by the regional stock of trees. With one end resting on the waterside and the other end perched on a purpose-built mini island, the shiny handle of the spoon arches over the pond, while from the island the oval bowl rises towards the sky at an improbably steep angle. Poised at the top end of the bowl, visible throughout the garden from afar, is the cherry in signal red, appearing ready to slide down at any moment. The stem of the cherry serves as a jet, with water spraying out to form a rainbow; water also issues evenly from its base, creating a glistening effect over the smooth surface of the cherry and pouring into the shallow bowl below. The surprise of finding an oversized fruit spooned up in a park, together with its curved forms and the bright colour, creates a sensuous joy that makes the work immediately accessible to a wide audience, including children. Thus the project pays tribute to its setting within a public space frequently visited by families for recreational purposes. As an outdoor piece, Spoonbridge and Cherry even accommodates the local seasons. While the work temporarily stops serving as a fountain when the pond freezes over during the cold months, each winter, by Oldenburg’s own humorous account, ‘the snow brings back the ice cream sundae origin of the cherry’.

1. Spoonbridge and Cherry 1988. Stainless steel, painted aluminium. 9 × 4 × 15.7 m / 29 ft 6 in × 13 ft 6 in × 51 ft 6 in 1 96—97 Detroit Institute of Arts Diego Rivera Detroit, MI, USA

In 1931 Detroit Institute of Arts director William Valentiner invited Diego Rivera (1886–1957) to decorate the Garden Court (later renamed Rivera Court) of the Beaux-Arts styled building designed by Paul Philippe Cret. The mural was financed by Edsel B. Ford, owner of the Ford Motor Company. The commission resulted in Detroit Industry, a series of 27 panels covering a total area of 433.7 m2 (4,668 sq ft), which Rivera painted between April 1932 and March 1933. Along with the mural cycle at the Universidad Autónoma in Chapingo, Mexico, this is considered to be Rivera’s most harmonious marriage of architectural space and painting. Accompanied by his third wife, Frida Kahlo, Rivera spent a month sketching the production lines at Ford Motor Company’s main plant, then the largest industrial complex in the world. While the murals reference the subsidiary industries of Detroit – pharmaceuticals, aviation and commercial chemistry – the scheme 1 3 is dominated by two panels that refer to the automobile industry: ‘Production and Manufacture of Engine and Transmission’ on the north wall, and ‘Production of Automobile Exterior and Final Assembly’ on the south wall. These two panels are likewise linked through Rivera’s representation of the four races that sit above them: ‘The Red and Black Races and Geological Strata’ (north) and ‘The White and Yellow Races and Geological Strata’ (south). The murals are remarkably accurate in their representation of the Ford production lines. However Rivera has exaggerated the density of the workforce (which had been greatly reduced as a consequence of the Great Depression) and dressed them in overalls to conform to his vision of proletarians. His fascination with technology led Rivera to liken Coatlicue, the mother of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli – known through the basalt sculpture held in Mexico’s Museo Nacional de Antropología – with Ford’s giant fender stamping press. This conflation of the ancient with the modern appears to suggest that Rivera saw technology as a new religion.

1–2. Detroit Industry, 1932–3 Fresco. 27 panels, total area 433.7 m2 / 4,668 sq ft 3. ‘Production and Manufacture of Engine and Transmission’ (North Wall) 4. ‘Production of Automobile Exterior and Final Assembly’ (South Wall) 5. (Overleaf) Detail of North Wall 6. Detail of South Wall 7–8. Aviation scenes in the West Wall 9. Detail of typists in South Wall 10. West Wall showing ‘The Worker’ 11. West Wall showing ‘The Manager’ 2 4 114—115 Brush Creek Valley Adena or Culture Adams County, OH, USA

Located in Adams County, in Southwest , Serpent Mound spans 411 m (1,348 ft) of land, making it the largest in the world. It can be found in a clearing, surrounded by trees and rolling hills, and overlooking a steep drop to Ohio Brush Creek, located only a few kilometres from the confluence with the Ohio River. The mound is covered in grass and at ground level blends into the gentle slopes of the surrounding area. Owned and maintained by the Ohio Historical Society, Serpent Mound takes the form of a winding snake, whose head opens to an ovoid shape, and whose tail winds into three perfectly circular loops. It was built by the Native American tribes of the Ohio Valley but its date, purpose and shape remain enigmatic. It is clear that the site was occupied by successive cultures, including those of the Adena (c.800 BC to AD 100) and the Fort Ancient (c. AD 1000– 1650). Evidence for this is found in the three conical burial mounds found at the same site, two of which date to the , and one to Fort Ancient. While the burial mounds contain human remains and artefacts that allow accurate dating, Serpent Mound itself contains no such evidence. Carbon dating carried out in the 1990s suggested that it was originally built only 900 years ago, and therefore was made by the Fort Ancients. However, it is also possible that the mound existed beforehand and was repurposed by the later tribe. After Ephraim Squire and Edwin Davis documented the site in their Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), archaeologists devised a number of theories regarding the meaning of the serpent’s formation and location. Some speculated that the oval at the head was a cosmic egg, while others suggested that the serpent was both an aerial view of the pattern of a snake’s head and a profile view of its body. A number of theories have emerged since then that relate the effigy to astronomical events and Native American cosmology. It may have served as a kind of calendar, or celestial chart. For example, some have argued that the head marks the position of the sun at the sunset, while others have suggested that the coils are aligned with solstice and equinox events. The specific positioning of the serpent may also correspond to the Draco constellation.

1. Serpent Mound Possibly 500 BC–AD 200 or AD 1000–1200 Clay, rock, earth. H: 1.21–1.52 m / 4–5 ft, W (widest point): 7.62 m / 25 ft, total length 405 m / 1,330 ft 1 120—121 Trinity Church Sir Edward Burne-Jones, John La Farge, Eugène Stanislaus Oudinot , MA, USA

The dedication of Trinity Church in Boston in February 1877 established the reputation of architect Henry Hobson Richardson. It also bought fame to John La Farge (1835–1910), whose mural scheme was of a scale, scope and artistry unprecedented in 3 the United States. La Farge’s work imparted a colourful and busy impression to Richardson’s great auditorium. Bands of ornament based on Arabian art compete with motifs from Byzantine and Early Christian churches and floating monumental figures reminiscent of medieval and Renaissance sources. Between 1880 and 1900 La Farge created four pictorial windows, executing them with his revolutionary layered opalescent glasses. Over the main entrance he framed a Hellenistic figure of Christ Preaching in Byzantine architecture opening to a sky of opalescent glass jewels the size of golf balls. The rector, Phillips Brooks, reportedly requested this imagery to inspire his own preaching. Another window, a memorial to the wife of architect Charles Follen McKim, merges Renaissance imagery from Titian and Vittore Carpaccio. Maine lumber baron George Nixon Black is memorialized by Mannerist figures from Correggio in a dazzling Byzantine setting of jewelled 2 4 opalescent glass. To honour the wife of Charles Alfred Welch, from one of Boston’s oldest merchant families, La Farge employed his meticulous late style to adapt figures from Titian and Giovanni Bellini. The windows were produced by important European firms. In 1877–8 Eugène Stanislas Oudinot (1827–89), a leading Paris designer of enamel-painted glass, filled three monumental lancets in the south transept with scenes related to Christ’s Resurrection. Several years later, three corresponding lancets in the north transept received glass designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98), working for the English firm Morris & Co, with subjects drawn from Christ’s Nativity.

1. John La Farge Trinity Church Murals, 1876–7. Encaustic on plaster. Total area 2,000 m2 / 21,500 sq ft 2. View from chancel 3. Sir Edward Burne-Jones The Adoration of the Shepherds, The Worship of the Magi and The Flight into Egypt, 1880–1. Enamel paint on glass. Central lancet 6.10 × 1.98 m / 20 ft × 6 ft 5 in, side lancets 4.72 × 2 m / 15 ft 5 in × 6 ft 6 in 4. John La Farge Christ Preaching, 1880–3. Leaded opalescent glass. Each lancet 6.7 × 0.91 m / 22 × 3 ft 5. View of transept looking south-east, with La Farge’s Black Memorial and Welch Memorial (left) 6. Sir Edward Burne-Jones David’s Charge to Solomon in the Baptistry 1 5 6 180—181 Cueva La Pintada Cochimíes Culture Mulegé Municipality, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Scattered across the Sierra de San Francisco mountain range, in the south of the Baja California peninsula, are some of the most exceptional examples of cave painting in the Americas. Situated within the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Nature Reserve, the area is home to over 250 individual sites decorated with animals and human figures, some of which measure several metres in height (which helped give rise to the legend that the region was inhabited by a race of giants). It is not known who created them, although it is thought that it may have been the hunter-gatherer Cochimíes, who probably used the caves as places of refuge from extreme heat. Although the oldest paintings date from around 1100 BC and the most recent from AD 1300, their style varies little from cave to cave. The outlines of the images are traced in white chalk, with further colour added by the application of black, red, brown and yellow pigments. 2 The Sierra de San Francisco is full of caves in various shapes and sizes. Those situated near water contain the greatest number of figures and for that reason it is believed that they were the ones used most intensively. The paintings at Cueva La Pintada (‘the painted cave’) are among the most well-known and best-preserved examples of the period. This is one of the largest caves in the area, and the most densely painted. Over a length of 150 m (492 ft), numerous abstract human figures are represented in black and red in frontal positions in varying sizes. The paintings also show herds of deer, rams and birds among other animals. Another remarkable example can be found in the nearby Cueva de la Serpiente. The composition depicts an image of a snake, which occupies almost the entire surface of the 8 m- (26 ft-) long wall. This painting is unusual in that it could have been executed by a single painter, while in the other caves, such as La Pintada, it is usual to find images superimposed, evidence of the work of many painters. Although associated with hunting and fishing, the purpose that these paintings served for the people who made them is not clear – perhaps they were used for offerings, altars or elements in a propitiatory ritual.

1. La Pintada Cave, life-size animals depicted at the opening of the cave, 1100 BC–AD 1300. Pigment on rock. L: c.150 m / 492 ft 2. Abstract human representations in black and ochre 3. Human figures with herd of deer

1 3 188—189 Las Pozas Edward James Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

The sprawling gardens of Las Pozas are not immediately redolent of the English aristocracy. However, their creator was born into a wealthy landed family in England in 1907. After Eton and Oxford, Edward James (1907–84 ) gravitated to London where he fell in with the avant-garde and began to provide support to the artists he met: he financed George Balanchine’s first company, funded Dylan Thomas, commissioned works by Poulenc and Stravinsky, and after meeting Salvador Dalí and René Magritte while on a trip to Europe, became a major patron of the Surrealists. (Magritte’s Not to be Reproduced, 1937, showing a man staring into a mirror in which he sees the back of his own head, is in fact a portrait of James.) In the mid-1940s, after a visit to Mexico, the increasingly eccentric James became focused on finding a site there to build a home where he could indulge two of his fascinations: keeping exotic animals and growing 4 orchids. He chose a coffee plantation near the town of Xilitla, north of Mexico , and spent a decade doing just that. However, after a highly unusual frost killed most of his orchids in 1962, James began work on creating a sprawling sculpture garden 1 he was to call Las Pozas (The Pools). Over the next two decades, James – who employed hundreds of local labourers, artisans and craftsmen on the project –continued to add to his extraordinary complex, which as time went on came to include a variety of structures with surrealistic designs and names (The House with a Roof Like A Whale, for instance, and The Staircase to Heaven), some up to four storeys high, all set within grounds crossed by trails and dotted with plantings, steps and bridges. A vision of a certain kind of largely benign yet nevertheless failed colonial fantasy, Las Pozas routes James’s love for (and impotence in the face of) the natural setting in which it was constructed, through an Old World programme of garden design and architectural folly.

1–5. Las Pozas, 1962–84 Concrete, stone, mixed media. Total area: 32 hectares / 80 acres 2 3 5 200—201 Temple of the Feathered Serpent Zapotec Culture Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico

The Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Xochicalco is constructed with a talud-tablero (slope and panel) architectural design that is highly comparable to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacán. However, in the case of Xochicalco, the talud (slope) is much higher than the tablero (panel), allowing large areas for various relief carvings. On the exterior of the temple the carvings depict a slithering feathered serpent with its body rising and falling, covered in seashells. The seashells represent a connection to the water of the surface of the earth and the serpent is a symbol of fertility, which being feathered, also suggests a link with the sky. In between each dip and rise is a seated man, wearing an elaborate headdress. His body faces forwards while his head is carved, showing a side view that is closely related to Maya jade carvings, which indicates Mayan, in addition to Teotihuacán, influence. The figures are accompanied by glyphs and dates executed in the bar and dot system widely used by the Zapotecs and Maya. In addition to the stylized feathered serpent, carvings of birds, animals, glyphs and warriors in armour decorate the remainder of the temple. The feathered serpent is a prominent figure in Mesoamerica and stands for the deity Quetzalcoatl, whose name is translated as Feathered (or sometimes ‘Precious’) Serpent. This creature has a dual nature that encapsulates divine sky 1 powers through the feathers, and earthly powers through its limbless body. This symbolic duality enables the hybrid creature to live among both planes of existence – heaven and earth – thus making it one of the most powerful religious symbols and deities in Mesoamerica. Many of the iconographic characteristics found in Xochicalco are similar to those in Teotihuacan, which suggests that the great city and its temples were possibly recreated here.

1. Temple of the Feathered Serpent, c.650 Carved stone. 21 × 19 × 17 m / 68 × 62 × 55 ft 2. Detail of relief carving showing the writhing body of the feathered serpent 3. Detail of head and jaws of the feathered serpent 4. Detail of relief carving showing seated figured in headdress 2 3 4 226—227 Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño Jesús Rafael Soto Caracas, Venezuela

Named after a celebrated Venezuelan pianist and composer, the Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño (Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex) came into being during the oil boom of the 1970s. Originally conceived to house the Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, the centre came to include two concert halls in addition to large terraces, gardens, and other indoor and outdoor spaces with multiple uses. The main structure, rendered in a Brutalist architectural style, recalls the forms of the surrounding mountains. Among the works of art in the complex, the most important are by Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005) and include sculptures in the foyer and parking garage; the acoustic ceiling of the main concert hall (named Sala José Félix Ribas after the Venezuelan independence leader); and two curtains for its stage. Soto’s signature vibrating forms are especially apt for a musical setting, and the artist himself had a particular affinity with the musical arts, being an accomplished guitarist. In the Sala Ribas, white trapezoidal planes hang from the ceiling, recalling the building’s architecture and contrasting with the linear forms depicted on the stage curtain. In the manner of Soto’s sculptures known as Escrituras (Writings), the curtain juxtaposes repeated straight lines under curving, amorphous ones set at random intervals. Cubos virtuales blancos sobre proyección amarilla (White virtual cubes over yellow projection) is a monumental ceiling work of yellow and white rods suspended over the foyer of the Sala Ribas. The yellow layer occupies a single plane, while the white areas hover below it in several places to create virtual forms in space. The viewer’s perception of the piece changes depending on their relative position. When seen head on, the geometric structure suggests right angles, the white rods making up distinct cubes, but the most wondrous viewing experience occurs when ascending or descending the escalators directly below. From there, all the rods appear to dematerialize into thin air, imbuing the heavy architecture with a feeling of weightlessness.

1. Extension Amarilla y Cubos Virtuales (White Virtual Cubes over Yellow Projection), 1982. Aluminum rods. 10 × 50 × 27 m / 33 × 164 × 89 ft 2. The white rods seen from the first floor mezzanine 1 2 284—285 Pampas de Jumana Nasca Culture Pampas de Jumana, Peru

The Pampas de Jumana is a desert plain between the valleys of Palpa and Nasca in Peru. The plain has no trees or major landmarks and is covered with a layer of small stones. It extends more than 48 km (30 miles) in length and 24 km (15 miles) in width, until mountains block its path. The region’s ancient inhabitants saw the plain as a blank slate and marked it with more than seventy , or earth drawings. The lines appear haphazardly arranged across the plain, and many intersect or overlap. Today’s visitors view the lines from aeroplanes or from a modern observation tower. But the ancient Nasca could have viewed the lines from nearby mountains or in an embodied sense as they walked the lines as processional routes. When seen from far above, the berms of stones along the sides of lines cast shadows that contribute to an illusion that the lines are raised, similar to 1 such as the Serpent Mound and others of the in North America. In fact the Nasca Lines were all created using the relatively simple subtractive technique of sweeping away the upper layer of darkened stones to expose the white earth underneath. The lines can be divided into two categories. The first are biomorphic: figural images are created using thin contour lines and represent a variety of plants and animals, many either in profile or as if seen from above. Most of the identifiable species, such as a hummingbird and a whale, would have been observable in the Nasca region or on the nearby coast. Other figures, such as a 55 m- (180 ft-) long monkey, come from more distant regions such as the Amazon Basin. The second category of lines consists of geometric shapes such as trapezoids and triangles. These often feature very large areas from which many stones were removed. The geometric precision and large scale of these lines suggests that their creation and maintenance was a community-wide effort that may have been sustained over generations.

1. Exposed earth , The Monkey, c.200 BC–AD 500. L: 55 m / 180 ft 2. The Giant. L: 32 m / 104 ft 3. The Hummingbird. L: 50 m / 164 ft 4. (Overleaf) Overview of the exposed earth geoglyphs of intersecting lines and geometric shapes 5. The Spider. L: 46 m / 150 ft 6. The Condor. L: 135 m / 443 ft 11 in 7. The Tree. L: 70 m / 230 ft 2 3 324—325