Agnes Denes
Encyclopedia
Agnes Denes is an American Land Art
artist. Born in Budapest in 1931, her family moved to Stockholm, then New York City. Denes has been a pioneer of both the environmental art movement and Conceptual art.
For "Wheatfield", her best known land art project, she planted a two-acre field of wheat in a vacant lot in downtown Manhattan. The purpose of the project was to comment on "human values and misplaced priorities". Grain harvested from "Wheatfield" then traveled to 28 cities worldwide in "The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger" and was symbolically planted around the globe. Another notable project is "Tree Mountain-A Living Time Capsule", a massive earthwork and reclamation project that reaches four hundred years into the future to benefit future generations with a meaningful legacy.
Agnes Denes has had over 300 solo and group exhibitions on four continents, including Documenta VI in Kassel (1977), three Venice Biennales (1978, 1980,2001) and "Master of Drawing" Invitational at the Kunsthalle in N�rnberg (1982). She has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum in New York. In l992 she had a major retrospective at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, for which five art historians contributed catalogue essays.
In addition to her art work, Agnes Denes also has written four books. She holds a doctorate in fine arts.
Land art
Land art, Earthworks , or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked...
artist. Born in Budapest in 1931, her family moved to Stockholm, then New York City. Denes has been a pioneer of both the environmental art movement and Conceptual art.
For "Wheatfield", her best known land art project, she planted a two-acre field of wheat in a vacant lot in downtown Manhattan. The purpose of the project was to comment on "human values and misplaced priorities". Grain harvested from "Wheatfield" then traveled to 28 cities worldwide in "The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger" and was symbolically planted around the globe. Another notable project is "Tree Mountain-A Living Time Capsule", a massive earthwork and reclamation project that reaches four hundred years into the future to benefit future generations with a meaningful legacy.
Agnes Denes has had over 300 solo and group exhibitions on four continents, including Documenta VI in Kassel (1977), three Venice Biennales (1978, 1980,2001) and "Master of Drawing" Invitational at the Kunsthalle in N�rnberg (1982). She has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum in New York. In l992 she had a major retrospective at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, for which five art historians contributed catalogue essays.
In addition to her art work, Agnes Denes also has written four books. She holds a doctorate in fine arts.
Selected works
- Rice/Tree/Burial 1968, Eco-Logic, Sullivan County, New YorkSullivan County, New YorkSullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The name is in honor of Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War...
; re-created 1977 at Artpark
- Wheatfield, a Confrontation 1982 ManhattanManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Battery ParkBattery ParkBattery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
City landfillLandfillA landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
- Tree Mountain-a living time capsule 1996, YlöjärviYlöjärviYlöjärvi is a town and a municipality in Western Finland located west of Tampere.The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The population has increased rapidly in recent years, in 1990 it was slightly over 18,000.Ylöjärvi was founded as...
, FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- A Forest for Australia reforestationReforestationReforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation....
of Red Gum, She Oak, and PaperbarkMelaleuca halmaturorumMelaleuca halmaturorum, known as Swamp Paperbark , is a native tree of Western Australia....
trees in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
1998
- Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie masterplan, 2000
Publications
- The Human Argument Spring Publications, Putnam, Connecticut, 2008. ISBN 978-0-88214-569-3
Awards and honors
- 1997 Rome PrizeRome PrizeThe Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists and to 15 scholars The Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists...
from the American Academy in RomeAmerican Academy in RomeThe American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition... - Watson Transdisciplinary Art Award, Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
1999
Biographies
- Agnes Denes http://www.evo1.org/agnesdenes.html
- Biography http://www.asci.org/artikel922.html
- Greenmuseum Bio http://greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-63.html
See also
- Restoration ecologyRestoration ecology-Definition:Restoration ecology is the scientific study and practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action, within a short time frame...