Don Stinson, High Beams and Starlight: Beyond Absence–Double Negative, July 2003 PM, 2004 (detail). Oil on linen; 81 x 89 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Laure and Matt McConnell, Noel and Tom Congdon, Jennifer Doran, and Jim Robischon, 2006.5
Earthworks: Land Art in the West
NOTE: The museum has made the decision to deliver this year’s symposium, Earthworks: Land Art in the West, as a virtual event. If you registered for in-person attendance, you will be refunded and only charged the fee for online access.
The Petrie Institute of Western American Art's 16th annual symposium will consider historical contexts of earthworks—both ancient and contemporary—as well as individual artists and their contributions to land art.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Valley Curtain, a dramatic installation in the Colorado landscape, the Petrie Institute’s 16th annual symposium will explore the history of land art in the West. Making interventions in the landscape and often using earth itself as a medium, artists in the late 1960s and 1970s reimagined artmaking and subverted art world norms.
Speakers & Lecture Information
Ancestral Land Artists–the Hopewell Era Peoples of Native North America
John N. Low , Ph.D, associate professor at the Ohio State University and citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Director of the Newark Earthworks Center
Dr. Low will discuss the use of earth 2000 years ago by the Indigenous peoples of Ohio in what can be speculated were not only ceremonial and celestial observatory sites but also works of art. So, while we celebrate Earthworks: Land Art in the West - we can take a pause and consider the land art that proceeded the art movement of the 1970's and since by recognizing the movement's ancestors.
The Life of Earthworks
James Nisbet, Chair, Art History; Associate Professor, Art History; Associate Professor, Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine
Dr. Nisbet’s talk will look at why the American West was the location for so many earthworks in the 1960s and 1970s, and how do these works continue to exist in different environments? This lecture will discuss the rise of the postwar American Land Art movement and consider some of the ecological issues that continue to affect these works in the present day.
No Man’s Land: Rediscovering the Women of Land Art
Dr. Leigh A. Arnold, Associate Curator, Nasher Sculpture Center
For many years, the dominant narrative of Land art has been focused on men active in the field: Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, and Robert Smithson, among others, who have had a significant impact on our understanding of earthworks and Land art. Through her presentation, Dr. Arnold will shift that focus to draw new light on the vast number of Land works by women artists, whose careers ran parallel to their better-known male counterparts, yet have received scant recognition or representation in museum presentations.
The Vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Colorado Outdoor Art Projects
James Baker
The 2022 re-opening of the DAM galleries for western art, including works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the influential 1972 installation of their monumental and temporary outdoor art project, Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72. The talk will focus on the ways in which they conceived and developed this project and planned for the uncompleted project Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, 1992-2017.
Virtual Symposium Schedule
The symposium will be moderated by Patricia Limerick, Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West, University of Colorado Boulder.
10:00–10:15 am: Welcome by JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman, Associate Curator, Petrie Institute of Western American Art.
Opening remarks by Patricia Limerick.
10:15–11:00 am: Ancestral Land Artists - the Hopewell Era Peoples of Native North America by John N. Low, Ph.D., associate professor at the Ohio State University and citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Director of the Newark Earthworks Center.
11:00–11:10 am: Break
11:10–11:55 am: The Life of Earthworks by James Nisbet, Chair, Art History; Associate Professor, Art History; Associate Professor, Visual Studies.
12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch break
1:30–1:40 pm: Remarks by Patricia Limerick.
1:40–2:25 pm: No Man’s Land: Rediscovering the Women of Land Art by Dr. Leigh A. Arnold, Associate Curator, Nasher Sculpture Center.
2:25–2:35 pm: Break
2:35–3:20 pm: The Vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Colorado Outdoor Art Projects by James Baker.
3:20–4:00 pm: Panel discussion, select Q&A, and closing remarks by JR Henneman.
