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Extended through January 7, 2015

Walter De Maria

November 8, 2014–January 7, 2015
980 Madison Avenue, New York

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Walter De Maria, The Equal Area Series: Pair Number 25, 1990 Stainless steel, dimensions variable© Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

Walter De Maria, The Equal Area Series: Pair Number 25, 1990

Stainless steel, dimensions variable
© Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: Rob McKeever

About

Gagosian 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 seventy-seven.

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’s locations since 1989.

The works on view, which date from 1976 to 1990, include the largest pair from The Equal Area Series (1976–90), Pair Number 25. Each of the twenty-five 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. Also alluding to that installation, two prerecorded musical compositions by De Maria—Cricket Music (c. 1964) and Ocean Music (c. 1968)—will be played in the space.

Large Rod Series: Pedestal Rods 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 (1984) comprises five highly polished solid stainless-steel rods ranging from five to thirteen 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.”

Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Winter 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.

Black and white image of Walter De Maria, 1961. Photo: George Maciunas

Walter De Maria: The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling

The definitive monograph on the work of Walter De Maria was published earlier this fall. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Elizabeth Childress and Michael Childress of the Walter De Maria Archive talk to Gagosian senior director Kara Vander Weg about the origins of the publication and the revelations brought to light in its creation.

Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977, long-term installation, western New Mexico. Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria. Photo: John Cliett, courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York, and © Estate of Walter De Maria

Light and Lightning: Wonder-Reactions at Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field

In this second installment of a two-part essay, John Elderfield resumes his investigation of Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977), focusing this time on how the hope to see lightning there has led to the work’s association with the Romantic conception of the sublime.

Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977. Entire field from northwest exterior looking southeast, summer 1979

A Day in the Life of The Lightning Field

In the first of a two-part feature, John Elderfield recounts his experiences at The Lightning Field (1977), Walter De Maria’s legendary installation in New Mexico. Elderfield considers how this work requires our constantly finding and losing a sense of symmetry and order in shifting perceptions of space, scale, and distance, as the light changes throughout the day.

Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2021

The Spring 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on its cover.

Frieze Sculpture New York: An Interview with Brett Littman

Frieze Sculpture New York: An Interview with Brett Littman

The inaugural presentation of Frieze Sculpture New York at Rockefeller Center opened on April 25, 2019. Before the opening, Brett Littman, the director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum and the curator of this exhibition, told Wyatt Allgeier about his vision for the project and detailed the artworks included.