The Lightning Field

Walter De Maria’s Lightning Field (1977), one of the twentieth century’s most significant works of art, is situated in a remote area in western New Mexico. It comprises four hundred polished stainless-steel poles installed in a grid measuring one mile by one kilometer. Critic Kenneth Baker visited The Lightning Field numerous times over the course of the past thirty years. Inspired and challenged by this remarkable artwork, Baker speculates in this book on the course of our contemporary human condition. He weaves citations and elegantly crafted prose-in a metaphorical parallel to De Maria’s choreographing of the vast landscape of the American Southwest-to create a compelling and moving text.