Walter de Maria - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

He studied history and art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1953 to 1959. Although trained as a painter, De Maria soon turned to sculpture and began using other media. De Maria and his friend, the avant-garde composer La Monte Young, participated in Happenings and theatrical productions in the San Francisco area. From his exposure to the work of La Monte Young and dancer Simone Forti, among others, De Maria developed an interest in task-oriented, gamelike projects that resulted in viewer-interactive sculptures. For example, his Boxes for Meaningless Work (1961) is inscribed with the instructions, “Transfer things from one box to the next box back and forth, back and forth, etc. Be aware that what you are doing is meaningless.”

In 1960, De Maria moved to New York. His early sculptures from the 1960s were influenced by Dada and other modern art movements. This influence led De Maria into using simple geometric shapes and industrially manufactured materials such as stainless steel and aluminum – materials which are also characteristic of Minimal art. With the support of collector Robert C. Scull, De Maria started making pieces in metal in 1965. Also in the mid 1960s, he became involved in various artistic activities. His piece, "Cage", for John Cage, was included in the seminal 1966 "Primary Structures" exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York. He appeared at happenings, composed two musical works (Cricket Music, 1964; Ocean Music, 1968), and produced two films (Three Circles and Two Lines in the Desert; Hardcore, both 1969).

In 1965 De Maria became the drummer in the New York-based rock group The Primitives and an artist/musician collaborative group called The Druds—the group included Lou Reed and John Cale, i.e., it was a precursor to The Velvet Underground.