BOOK: Walter De Maria-The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling-Gagosian
The book “The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling” by Gagosian, is the first comprehensive survey of Walter De Maria’s entire oeuvre. Exploring both his creative career and his personal life, the book reveals the interconnected and influential nature of Walter De Maria’s practice. While best known for interactive public sculptures and monumental works of Land art, De Maria also produced paintings, drawings, and films, as well as musical compositions and writing. The book documents more than two hundred such projects made or envisioned by the artist between 1960 and his death in 2013, as well as some realized posthumously. Presented in roughly chronological order, these are catalogued and illustrated with new and recent photography; many are also supplemented by archival and documentary images. “The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling” contains the first detailed chronology of De Maria’s life and work. Drawn from the artist’s archive, it illustrates lesser-known aspects of his personality and activity, including his time as a drummer in a band that was a precursor to the Velvet Underground. Seen alongside a selection of ephemera, such insights humanize a private and somewhat enigmatic individual.-Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Walter De Maria: The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling, (New York: Gagosian, 2022)
Walter De Maria, Truth / Beauty, 1990–2016, Installation view, Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London, 2016, Photo: Mike Bruce, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Walter De Maria, The 2000 Sculpture, 1992, Installation view, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2000. Walter A. Bechtler Foundation, Zurich. Photo: Nic Tenwiggenhorn, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Walter De Maria, Gagosian simultaneously presents “A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World / 3–12 Polygon” on West 21st Street and “13, 14, 15 Meter Rows” on West 24th Street, New York, in 2007. Photo: Rob McKeever, Courtesy Gagosian
Walter De Maria, Gagosian presents De Maria’s work for the first time, simultaneously showing sculptures from the “Open Polygon” and the “Large Rod Series” at the 980 Madison Avenue gallery and “13, 14, 15 Meter Rows” at 65 Thompson Street, a space co-owned by Gagosian and Leo Castelli. Photo: Steven Oglivy, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Walter De Maria, Gagosian presents De Maria’s work for the first time, simultaneously showing sculptures from the “Open Polygon” and the “Large Rod Series” at the 980 Madison Avenue gallery and “13, 14, 15 Meter Rows” at 65 Thompson Street, a space co-owned by Gagosian and Leo Castelli. Photo: Steven Oglivy, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977, Four hundred stainless steel poles, West central New Mexico, Comissioned and maintained by Dia Art Foundation, New York. Photo: John Cliett, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Walter De Maria, Gagosian simultaneously presents “A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World / 3–12 Polygon” on West 21st Street and “13, 14, 15 Meter Rows” on West 24th Street, New York, in 2007. Photo: Rob McKeever, Courtesy Gagosian
Walter De Maria, Truck Trilogy, 2011–17, Installation view, Dia:Beacon, New York, 2017, Photo: Rob McKeever, Courtesy Gagosian
The book “The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling” by Gagosian, is the first comprehensive survey of Walter De Maria’s entire oeuvre. Exploring both his creative career and his personal life, the book reveals the interconnected and influential nature of Walter De Maria’s practice. While best known for interactive public sculptures and monumental works of Land art, De Maria also produced paintings, drawings, and films, as well as musical compositions and writing. The book documents more than two hundred such projects made or envisioned by the artist between 1960 and his death in 2013, as well as some realized posthumously. Presented in roughly chronological order, these are catalogued and illustrated with new and recent photography; many are also supplemented by archival and documentary images. “The Object, the Action, the Aesthetic Feeling” contains the first detailed chronology of De Maria’s life and work. Drawn from the artist’s archive, it illustrates lesser-known aspects of his personality and activity, including his time as a drummer in a band that was a precursor to the Velvet Underground. Seen alongside a selection of ephemera, such insights humanize a private and somewhat enigmatic individual.-Dimitris Lempesis
