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Walter De Maria

13, 14, 15 Meter Rows

March 31–May 19, 2007
555 West 24th Street, New York

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985) Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985)

Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985) Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985)

Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985) Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

Installation view with 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985)

Artwork © Estate of Walter De Maria

About

Art reminds us we’re alive.
—Walter De Maria

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of two large-scale sculptures by Walter De Maria, A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World / 3-12 Polygon (1984) and 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985). Though they attest to the artist’s long-standing interest in mathematical systems, the experience of these vast works is as sensory as it is intellectual, communicating a sense of the infinite and the sublime. They are part of a thirteen-year series of monumental sculptures using a horizontal format, which features groupings of elements ordered according to precise calculations. This series includes The Broken Kilometer (1979), 360°/I-Ching (1981), Apollo’s Ecstasy (1990), and The 2000 Sculpture (1992).

The exhibition comprises two installations that are derived from the same numerological principals and are linked both physically and conceptually. A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World / 3-12 Polygon—on loan from the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and on view in the United States for the first time—occupies the entire 21st Street gallery. The work consists of seventy-five solid stainless-steel rods, each measuring one meter long and having equal volume and weight. The rods are arranged on the floor in ten rows, with every successive row increasing by a meter in length. The rods become increasingly faceted with each row. Metal halide lights dramatically illuminate the space; the steel rods flicker, suggesting the latent energy contained within them. Created before computers evolved into the ubiquitous objects that they are today, the work ingenuously asks whether such a device could, in fact, solve any potential problem. De Maria’s title, in combination with the subtle variations of the piece, implies that the most profound answers may be found by phenomenological rather than technological means—that is, through our own heightened awareness.

In the 24th Street gallery 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows builds upon the formula of A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World, with an additional forty-two rods arranged in three rows. Similarly, its shape and alignment seem to metamorphose as the viewer moves around the sculpture. However, in this case natural light floods the gallery space through the south and west clerestory windows, and the viewer experiences the artwork differently according to the weather and the time of day.

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.