EARTHWORKS //

VIRGINIA DWAN GALLERY

VIRGINIA DWAN

VIRGINIA DWAN AT EL MIRAGE DRY LAKE, 1970

EXTERIOR OF THE FIRST DWAN GALLERY,

BROXTON AVENUE, WESTWOOD, LOS

ANGELES, 1961

EARTHWORKS EXHIBITION AT DWAN GALLERY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1968

VIRGINIA DWAN

VIRGINIA DWAN // EARTHWORKS

MICHAEL HEIZER

WALTER DE MARIA

DENNIS OPPENHEIM

STEPHEN KALTENBACH

ROBERT MORRIS

ROBERT SMITHSON

SOL LEWITT

CLAES OLDENBURG

CARL ANDRE

HERBERT BAYER

MICHAEL HEIZER

MICHAEL HEIZER'S CIRCULAR SURFACE, PLANAR DISPLACEMENT DRAWING, EL MIRAGE DRY LAKE, 1969

MICHAEL HEIZER, DOUBLE NEGATIVE, 1969

MICHAEL HEIZER

WALTER DE MARIA

DWAN GALLERY ADVERTISEMENT FOR WALTER DE MARIA's EXHIBITION "BED OF SPIKES," FEATURING DE MARIA'S MILE LONG DRAWING, 1968

WALTER DE MARIA IN HAMBURG, 1968

WALTER DE MARIA

WALTER DE MARIA'S DESERT CROSS, EL MIRAGE DRY LAKE, 1969.

QUESTIONS

• In what ways can Dwan Gallery be seen as an East coast parallel of, and / or counterpoint to, Ferus Gallery? Do land artists engage with the mythological identity of the frontiersman with the same degree of consciousness as did the Ferus artists with the equally mythological identity of the macho man?

• Is there more or less room for the presence of female artists in the earthworks movement than there was in the Ferus gallery?

• How does land art’s straddling of east and west coasts trouble notions of geographic affiliation/ specificity?

• How does the tension between the rejection of the traditional commercial New York art world and the contradictory need or desire for its attention and interest plague the work of the land artists? Is this tension ever reconciled?