Artist of the day: Artist of the day, September 20: Maya Lin, American sculptor, designer

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Artist of the day, September 20: Maya Lin, American sculptor, designer

Maya Ying Lin (1959) is an American designer and artist who is known for her work in sculpture and land art. She achieved national recognition at the age of 21 while still an undergraduate at Yale University when her design was chosen in a national competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is considered one of the most influential memorials of the post-World War II period. Lin has completed designs for other memorials, as well as for numerous public and private buildings, landscape design, and sculpture. Although Lin’s most well known sculptures and architectural work are historical memorials, she also works to memorialize nature through her environmentally themed works. In creating works which deal with the depleting environment, Lin aims to raise awareness for the environment for audiences in urban spaces.

Even if she had designed nothing else, Maya Lin's first commission would make her one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century. Her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., a city known for its imposing monuments, is now one of the most iconic sights. Her use of a spare, low-slung wall to trace the line of the natural landscape became her trademark. Her minimalist approach to public art is to add something that looks like it was not originally there, but somehow belongs. Swells of earth interrupt the grassy terrain ever so slightly in her outdoor installations, so that if one is not viewing the work from high above or far away, one might not even notice them. The indoor sculptures on which she has focused recently maintain an implicit environmental focus, ideologically and visually evoking the rolling contours of remote geographic locations. In a career that began with controversy, Lin's 35-year record of public and private art successfully merges the conceptual and natural world.

Lin brought an unprecedented degree of humanity to Minimalism. The older, mostly male minimalists to whom she is visibly indebted (Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Richard Serra) steered clear of references to history, even in their large-scale public works. Lin's work, however, harnesses the power of this austere aesthetic to steer us toward grasping the impact of historic events in a personal way.

Lin's ideas were so far ahead of her time it took most of the world a little while to catch up with her. Critics initially misinterpreted her style as a literal effort to minimize the importance of a historic event and the individuals who served their country. Far from diminishing the memory of these individuals, however, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is now the most visited monument in Washington, D.C. Over 10,000 people a day visit it.

As an artist, Lin strikes an unusual balance between open-ended concepts, and scientific precision. Her stated aim is for her work to become a private conversation for each person who views it. In her obsessive planning, scientific calculation, investigation, and measurement in preparation for each work, however, she is a throwback to the Italian Renaissance, when science and art were of a piece.

Despite the radicalism of her ideas, they did not emerge from a vacuum. In placing greater emphasis on the viewer, and giving more power to the audience, Lin's work rests on the shoulders of a long line of conceptual artists from Marcel Duchamp to Yoko Ono, and is part of a widespread transformation taking place in public art at the end of the twentieth century.

Mrs Maya Lin

Architecture/landscape

Original sketch
© 2017, Maya Lin

1989 Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama
© 2017, Maya Lin

1993, The Women's Table, New Haven CT
© 2017, Maya Lin

1999, The Children's Defense Fund library
© 2017, Maya Lin

2004, The Riggio-Lynch Chapel
© 2017, Maya Lin

2013 Bell Tower Guangdong, China
© 2017, Maya Lin

Sandy River Bird Blind, Oregon
© 2017, Maya Lin

Landscape

1995 Wave Field
© 2017, Maya Lin

1999, Wave Field. Storm King Art Center
© 2017, Maya Lin

2004, 11 Minute Line, Wanås skulpturpark
© 2017, Maya Lin

2004, "Input" located at Bicentennial Park, Ohio University
© 2017, Maya Lin

Vimy Ridge World War 1 Trenches & Canadian Memorial
© 2017, Maya Lin

Wave Strom King Art Center – New York.
© 2017, Maya Lin

Fine arts

2009, Systematic Landscapes
© 2017, Maya Lin

A History of Water, Orlando Museum of Art
© 2017, Maya Lin

Arctic Circle, Equator, and Latitude New York City are nested in three concentric circles in relationship to their geographic coordinates
© 2017, Maya Lin