MOCA Presents Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974:
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, 16mm film on video transferred to DVD; color and sound, 35 minutes, Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974
May 27–August 20, 2012
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
The Museum of Contemporary Art presents
Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, the first large-scale, historical-thematic exhibition to deal broadly with Land art, on view at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from May 27 through August 20, 2012. Capturing the simultaneous impulse emergent in the 1960s to use the earth as an artistic medium and to locate works in remote sites far from familiar art contexts, the exhibition will highlight the early years of untested artistic experimentations and conclude in the mid-1970s before Land art became a fully institutionalized category. Rather than romanticizing notions such as “return to nature” or “escape from culture,” the exhibition will provide a comprehensive overview to reveal the complexity of the movement’s social and political engagement with the historical conditions of its time.
Superstudio, Cube of Forest on the Golden Gate, 1970–71, Collage with photogravure and alterations in crayon, 29 1/2 × 42 5/16 in., Collection of the heirs of Roberto Magris
Organized by MOCA Senior Curator Philipp Kaiser and co-curator Miwon Kwon, professor of art history at UCLA,
Ends of the Earth challenges many myths about Land art, including that it was primarily a North American phenomenon and that it exceeds the confines of the art system. The exhibition further exposes Land art as a media practice as much as a sculptural one, focusing on the extent to which language, photography, film, and television served as integral parts of its formation.
Ends of the Earth presents works by more than 80 artists and projects from United Kingdom, Japan, Israel, Iceland, Eastern and Northern Europe, as well as North and South Americas. Michael Heizer’s singular work
Double Negative (1969–70), included in MOCA’s permanent collection, will be a key feature of the programming around the exhibition.
Hans Haacke, Grass Grows, 1967/69, earth, dimensions variable, collection of the artist; courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery Installation view, “Earth Art” exhibition, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1969, © 2012 Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Photo: courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and the artist
A generously illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by a group of younger scholars who address the conditions of Land art’s emergence, its intrinsic connection to media, its dreams of an elsewhere, its attraction to wastelands, and the problems inherent in the historical evaluation of site-specific or ephemeral art. The book also includes a series of reflections from the major curators, critics, and dealers who contributed to Land art, through works and discourse, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Mary Miss, Battery Park Landfill, 1973, three gelatin-silver prints mounted on foam board, 22 × 30 in., courtesy of the artist.
Ends of the Earth is a revisionist art historical exhibition, but also a cultural specimen of the present, embodying the tensions and contradictions that exist in the uneasy reckoning between vanguard art of the 1960s and ‘70s and its institutionalization and historicization in 2012.
Major support is provided by Barbara Kruger.
The exhibition is also made possible by Kathi and Gary Cypres.
Additional support is provided by Suzanne and David Johnson, The Kwon Family Foundation, and John
Morace and Tom Kennedy.
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"Our decision to focus exclusively on L.A. artists reinforces our ongoing commitment to the creative community that make this city so vibrant," she said.
The Haggus Society is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.
