The Lightning Field Walter De Maria Catron County, NM, USA
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The Lightning Field Walter De Maria Catron County, NM, USA On a high desert plain in western New Mexico, 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 Dia Art Foundation, 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. The Lightning Field 1977. 400 stainless steel poles Area: c.1.6 × 1 km / 1 × 0.62 miles 1 74—75 Judd Foundation Donald Judd 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 Chinati Foundation, 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.