Unfinished Earthworks and Their Institutional Ecologies: A Status Report on Roden Crater, City, and Star Axis
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Date
2019-09-18
Authors
Curry, Casey
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This thesis explores the institutional and financial histories of James Turrell’s Roden Crater (1974-ongoing), Michael Heizer’s City (1972-ongoing), and Charles Ross’s Star Axis (1971-ongoing). It frames these works as second wave earthworks, or those deployed after the first wave of earthworks in1969 and 1970, which nonetheless percolated from a similar art historical context. It mines published accounts of these projects and recently filed 990 forms to construct financial and institutional narratives that illustrate how these artists capitalize on the social and economic motivations of contemporary art patrons, and simultaneously, how patrons employ these artworks and their institutional structures to advance their own social and economic goals. By reframing these projects through an institutional lens and incorporating information from nonprofit financial documents, this study leverages the history of these projects to extend the history of earthworks and offer an entry point into the history and development of large-scale, contemporary arts funding.
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Keywords
Art Institutions, Charles Ross, Earthworks, James Turrell, Michael Heizer, Nonprofit Organizations