Walter De Maria
dal 7/11/2014 al 19/12/2014
Segnalato da
7/11/2014
Walter De Maria
Gagosian Gallery - Madison Ave, New York
The show presents the works of the artist from 1976 to 1990, include a pair of floor sculptures from the Equal Area Series (1976-90). Each of the 25 pairs in the series comprises a 7/8-inch thick, solid stainless steel circle and square which measure nearly the same square.
Gagosian Gallery is proud to announce the representation of the Estate of the late Walter De Maria, a
vital figure in the evolution of Minimalism, Conceptual art, Land art, and installation. De Maria died in
July of 2013 at the age of 77.
On November 8, the first exhibition of sculptures and works on paper from the Estate will be
presented at 980 Madison Avenue. This will be the sixth exhibition of De Maria’s work to be held at
Gagosian Gallery’s locations since 1989.
The works on view, which date from 1976 to 1990, include a pair of floor sculptures from the Equal
Area Series (1976–90). Each of the 25 pairs in the series comprises a 7/8-inch thick, solid stainless
steel circle and square which, despite their distinctive geometries, measure nearly the same square
space. A British racing green wall as backdrop recalls the installation of Pair number 19, at the
Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 1989.
Large Rod Series: Pedestal Rods 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 (1984) comprises five highly-polished solid stainless
steel rods ranging from 5 to 13 sides, placed atop individual pedestals and spaced two meters apart.
This work is part of a thirteen-year span of horizontal sculptures, beginning with The Broken
Kilometer (1979), in which De Maria explored mathematical sequences through the grouping of similar
polygonal forms. The Pure Polygon Series (1976), an editioned portfolio of seven drawings executed
with a stencil, complements these sculptures. And, finally, De Maria's prescient meditation on the
incalculable reality of existence, There exists in the Universe more than One Billion Galaxies (1988),
will also be on view.
A nonprofit entity established by Larry Gagosian, the Walter De Maria Foundation will be dedicated to
managing the late 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, commented, “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.”
Walter De Maria was born in 1935 in Albany, California. He lived and worked in New York from 1960
until his death in 2013. For more than five decades, he was a singular figure whose rigorous and
visionary works changed the very parameters of art history. Combining precise geometry with vast
scale, his remarkable installations gave fresh impact and new meaning to the experience of looking at
art, while enhancing and expanding the appreciation of the surrounding world. Among the eleven
permanently sited installations by the artist are The New York Earth Room (1977), New York; The
Broken Kilometer (1979), New York; The Lightning Field (1977), New Mexico; The Vertical Earth
Kilometer (1977), Kassel, Germany; Monument to the Bicentennial of the French Revolution 1789–
1989 (1989–90), Assemblée Nationale, Paris; and the Large Red Sphere (2010), in the Türkentor
building, Munich.
Image:Walter De Maria, Equal Area Series–19 (detail), 1983 © 2014 The Estate of Walter De Maria
Press Enquiries
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Contact: Deirdre Maher E. deirdre@bluemedium.com - Andy Ptaschinski E. andy@bluemedium.com
Opening reception: Saturday, November 8th, from 6:00 to 8:00pm
Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue - New York, NY 10075
Hours: Tue–Sat 10-6