News

Now on Sale: An Essential Solitude: Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field Revisited by Kathleen Shields

Press Release

New York, NY—SNAP Editions is pleased to announce that An Essential Solitude: Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field Revisited by Kathleen Shields will be available immediately for purchase at Printed Matter and The Corner Bookstore in New York City. We are very pleased that these renowned and venerable independent booksellers, mainstay stockists in the New York City area, will be carrying this unique and exceptional volume.
 
Since its construction in 1977, Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field has continued to amaze and inspire its viewers throughout the years. Consisting of 400 stainless steel poles with pointed tips, all measuring approximately 20 feet high, and installed in a grid formation in a remote desert area in Catron County, New Mexico, this work is one of the most iconic examples from the Land Art movement of the twentieth century.
 
Following decades of research and exploration of Catron County, and  building relationships with the people who continue to maintain and support the American sculptor’s vision, Shield’s shines a new light on what it means to experience The Lightning Field in the context of the world today—a globalized network shaped by social media and everchanging technology.
 
Her diaristic approach to reexamining the work is deeply personal and enticing, often relating in great detail the comprehensive efforts essential for the conservation of the installation, while also focusing its relationship within the beauty and transcendence of the rugged West. Shields’s text tells a story of The Lightning Field around community and place, offering a picture of a world in which the artwork lives.


About the author
Kathleen Shields is an arts writer and curator who has written for many publications including Art in America and Artspace. She is the Executive Director of the Frederick Hammersley Foundation, Albuquerque, NM; as well as the former Administrator of The Lightning Field for the Dia Art Foundation for the last 30 years.


If you would like more information about An Essential Solitude: Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field Revisited or would like to schedule an interview with the author, please email [email protected].