Displaying items by tag: land art

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, which houses Robert Smithson's famous land work, Spiral Jetty, is facing the most critical drought in history.

Water is dropping south of the lake's historic low, set in 1963. According to a story by the Salt Lake Tribune, reported in February, the lake level was at an all-time low at 4,193.8 feet and "many observers expect it to dip to a new historic low within the year, depending on precipitation this winter."

New York’s Gagosian Gallery is currently presenting an exhibition of sculptures and works on paper by the late American artist Walter De Maria. A pioneer of conceptual art, installation art, land art, and Minimalism, De Maria continuously pushed the boundaries of what contemporary art looked like and how it was displayed.

Last month, Gagosian Gallery announced that it had acquired De Maria’s estate and planned to establish the Walter De Maria Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to managing the artist’s rights and reproductions, advising on curatorial matters, and overseeing the preparation of a major monograph. Elizabeth Childress, former director of the De Maria studio, and current director of the Walter De Maria Collection and Archives, said, “Walter so wished to establish his own foundation, but sadly he did not accomplish this during his lifetime. It is an important step to have this entity as both a protection and a promotion of his legacy.”       

The Dia Art Foundation is well known for its stewardship of two of the greatest pieces of American land art: Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” in Utah and Walter De Maria’s “Lightning Field” in New Mexico.

In 2015, after years of planning, it will open an ambitious new long-term project that is intended to ask provocative questions about what “American” means and to push the boundaries of the foundation’s roots in the Minimalist and Conceptual movements of the 1960s and ’70s.

The building at 421 E. 6th Street looks unassuming enough. It’s still got the facade of the Con Ed substation that it was in the 1920s, and chances are, if you’re strolling by on the way to Tompkins Square Park, you probably wouldn’t stop and stare.

But inside, the gigantic space is filled with the minimalist installations of Walter De Maria, who purchased the lot in 1980 and turned it into his studio and home that he occupied and built upon until his death last year. He transformed the building into a work of art itself, perhaps the encapsulation of his entire career and life.

The Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ will celebrate its 100^th anniversary on January 15, 2014. Beginning this fall and continuing throughout the following year, the museum will hold a variety of celebratory events and activities. In addition, the Montclair Museum will install the first in what it hopes to be a series of commissioned works for the institution’s outdoor sculpture garden. The sculptor Jean Shin will create works for this year’s installation.

Highlights from the upcoming centennial celebration include 100 Year, 100 Voices, a crowdsourced audio-tour project that invites members of the Montclair community to comment on their favorite work in the upcoming exhibition 100 Works for 100 Years; a lecture by University of San Francisco professor and author of Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of the Museum in America, Marjorie Schwarzer; and Robert Smithson’s New Jersey, an exhibition highlighting the monumental works of New Jersey native and one of the founders of the Land Art movement, Robert Smithson.

The Montclair Art Museum is devoted to American art and Native American art forms. Its collection consists of over 12,000 works and includes paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculpture dating from the 18^th century to the present. The museum has the only gallery in the world dedicated solely to the work of the 19^th century American painter George Inness, who lived and worked in Montclair.

Looking at the View, a sweeping display of 300 years of British landscape painting, opened at London’s Tate Britain on February 12, 2013. The exhibition coincides with the re-opening of the Tate Britain galleries, which were closed for renovations.

The show is part of the museum’s BP British Art Displays, a series that highlights contemporary and historic British art from its collection. Curated by Tate Britain’s director Penelope Curtis, Looking at the View illustrates the different ways British artists have interpreted and portrayed their surroundings over the past three centuries. The exhibition features works from the Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite periods as well as paintings from the Land Art and other contemporary movements. Artists on view include J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), John Brett (1831-1902), Henry Lamb (1883-1960), Lucian Freud (1922-2011), and Tracey Emin (b. 1963).

Looking at the View, which presents over 70 works by more than 50 artists, is arranged according to motif and draws connections between artists from vastly different time periods and movements. It is on view at Tate Britain through June 2, 2013.