-
-
“Why the monument? In a city which has come to symbolize temporal power, the monument, with its reference to Egyptian obelisks, and the pyramids, is itself the striking symbol of a different level of power, one not necessarily tied to men and governments, but to unconscious understanding of the cycles of life, from hourly movements to the passage of centuries, millenia.”
- Lita AlbuquerqueOriginal proposal document, 1980 -
-
In 1980 Lita Albuquerque produced The Washington Monument Project: The Red Pyramid on the National Mall in Washington, DC for the International Sculpture Conference.
-
-
-
Art historian William L. Fox describes the artist's intentional harmony with nature, the ephemerality of her interventions as well as her use of color to be part of Albuquerque’s uniquely feminist contribution to the history of Land Art. Alongside Judy Chicago and Patricia Johanson, Albuquerque’s introduction of color was “a deliberate choice to counter the monochromatic earthworks by the men,” and “feminize land art,” Fox wrote. Others would say that it is a direct confrontation with the phallic symbol of power.
-
-
The project came at a pivotal junction in the artist’s development as it is her first urban intervention that continues the dialogue between earth and the cosmos central to her oeuvre. In earlier works such as Rock and Pigment (1978) she dusted stones with pigment in expansive natural landscapes and in conversation with the heavens - stones replicated the maps of the stars. The same year she presented her renowned, Spine of the Earth in the Mojave desert, The Washington Monument Project opens the door for Albuquerque's later, well-known works such as Sol Star (1996) when she intervened near the pyramids in Giza and Stellar Axis: Antarctica (2006) created in situ at the South Pole.
-
The presentation contains a large-scale triptych of photographs (60 x 40 in each) that show the motion intrinsic to the work, exhibited with a sculpture made of copper filled and with pigment that condenses the simultaneous gravity and fragility of the intervention.
-
-
A series of drawings created at the time highlight the work’s philosophical underpinnings and documentation of the artist's process and a series of archival slides bring the process to life.
-
-
-
The artworks are complemented by extensive and rare documentation that survived a devastating fire in the artist’s studio in 2018, including artist texts, correspondences with scientists and authorities, design documents and plans.
-
-
The Washington Monument (1980) was exhibited in full for the first time at OFFSCREEN Paris in October 2024. The triptych and sculpture have previously been exhibited at MOCA in Los Angeles in 2010, in Groundswell: Women of Land Art at the Nasher Sculpture Center in 2023 and in the major solo exhibition Early Works at the gallery in early 2024.
The artist discussed the work and contextualized it in her larger practice in dialogue with Chris Bayley, Curator at Serpentine during OFFSCREEN's Fireside Chats program.
-
-
Learn More About The Artist
-
Lita Albuquerque (b. 1946) is a major figure in the Land Art and Light & Space Movements. She recently exhibited in the retrospective Groundswell: Women of Land Art, at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA (2023) and in the Light & Space retrospective at Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark (2021).
Her works are held in numerous major collections including the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty Trust, the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA and MOCA.
-
-
-
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | GROUNDSWELL WOMEN OF LAND ART
GROUP EXHIBITION 23 Septembre 2023 - 7 Janvier 2024Lita Albuquerque est l'une des 12 artistes féminines présentées dans la grande rétrospective Groundswell : Women of Land Art au Nasher Sculpture Center au Texas, États-Unis. En utilisant des matériaux... -
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | COPENHAGEN CONTEMPORARY
GROUP EXHIBITION 3 Décembre 2021 - 22 Septembre 2022Lita Albuquerque a été l'une des artistes présentées lors de la grande rétrospective sur le mouvement 'Lumière et espace' au Copenhagen Contemporary. Light & Space présente des œuvres historiques et... -
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | FRIEZE
COMMISSION 5 Février 2025Lita Albuquerque présente Turbulence (2025) dans le cadre de Frieze Projects, organisé par Art Production Fund, à Frieze Los Angeles 2025. Pionnière des mouvements light and space et land art,... -
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | NEW YORK TIMES
PRESS 19 Juin 2024Dans le New York Times, Jori Finkel écrit de l'œuvre de Land Art récemment recréée de Lita Albuquerque, Malibu Line. En 1978, Lita Albuquerque a réalisé une peinture étrange qui... -
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | FINANCIAL TIMES
PRESS 14 Février 2025Dans le Financial Times, Lucie Davies écrit sur Lita Albuquerque. Lita Albuquerque a subverti le club des garçons du land art - elle reçoit enfin son dû La... -
LITA ALBUQUERQUE | ARTNET
PRESS 19 Septembre 2024Katie White dresse le profil de Lita Albuquerque dans Artnet, Land Art’s Grande Dame Lita Albuquerque Is Still ‘Queen of the Now’. En 1975, Lita Albuquerque se promenait au Metropolitan...
-
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT PROJECT: LITA ALBUQUERQUE
En cours viewing_room
