Walter de Maria
Walter de Maria
5 Continents Sculpture
1989
Marble, quartz, magnesite, glass, steel; 5 x 5 x 5 m
© Walter de Maria
The monumental quality and elemental force of this 'lapidary' form are the key features of Walter de Maria's '5 Continents Sculpture' in the Daimlerheadquarters. The chunks of marble, quartz and magnesite weigh almost two hundred and fifty tons. Their rough, broken form and differing shades, density and brilliance show that they were obtained in a variety of quarries.
As the title of the work suggests, they come from five different continents. The age of the stones used, which geologists can use to establish the date and circumstances in which they came into being, and thus deduce the entire history of each continent, is between 22 million and 1.8 billion years. They are mixed in equal parts, and represent a synthesis of the whole globe in terms of both material and ideas: ideas not just because of the way they are presented, but also because the cube that now acts as a container for the stones is an ideal form.
This abstract geometrical solid - the length of its sides, five metres, was not chosen without careful thought - expresses man's creative will as the source of and driving force behind synthetic achievement. Both the rational form and its transparent surface - the solid steel struts were reduced to the minimum that was technically viable - become striking symbols of the effective presence of the human spirit.
Background Of course de Maria's artistic strategy is to illustrate nature's elemental force and potential mode of action using resources copied from nature itself: scale categories and ideas of grandeur and overwhelming strength that can compete with the scope of natural phenomena. De Maria selects artistic devices that relate to various artistic movements of the sixties, or even suggest new directions, even though the artist himself cannot be definitely placed in any particular category, whether it be Minimal, Conceptual or Land Art. He uses his resources to realize art whose integrative approach shows a possible way forward for art production in subsequent years, aimed at a new, integrated experience of self and the world.
Biographical details ·
1935 Born in Albany, California - lives in New York. ·
Studies history and art history at the University of California in Berkeley.
1960 Moves to New York.
1969 Guggenheim Fellowship.
1976 Mather Sculpture Prize of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1987 Baden-Württemberg International Fine Art Prize on the occasion of an appearance by the '5 Continents Sculpture' in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.External link: More about Walter de Maria
