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Artist Walter de Maria, who died at the age of 77 last week, was best known for his massive-scale projects and frequent collaborations with the Dia Foundation. We've collected five of his projects to revisit. 

The New York Earth Room


In 1980, de Maria brought his "Earth Room" to New York for a permanent installation. The materials alone, which involve 3,600 square feet of soil, weigh in at 280,000 pounds. In an anecdote at Vulture, Jerry Saltz profiles the long-term caretakers of the installation, the Dilworths, a married couple that rakes the dirt once a week and attends the information desk.

The Vertical Kilometer



The period of 1977-1979 saw de Maria work with a kilometer of polished brass metal in two very different ways. In Kassel, Germany he installed "The Vertical Earth Kilometer," in which a kilometer-long brass pipe was inserted entirely in the ground. Only the top ring of the pipe remains visible. 

The Broken Kilometer



Two years later in New York City he installed "The Broken Kilometer" at 393 West Broadway, a companion piece to "The Vertical Kilometer" which was a series of meticulously spaced brass pieces with the collective length equal to a kilometer.

Time/Timeless/No Time



The Benesse Art Site Naoshima, the museum on Japan's Naoshima Island that houses this 2004 de Maria work, aims to provide a space for contemporary art in the natural context of the island. Instead of a landscape, de Maria's "Time/Timeless/No Time" sculpture is manipulated by the changing natural light on the island.


High Energy Bar and Certificate



The process and documentation of de Maria's High Energy Bar and Certificate series reveals more about the motives of the project than the perfect rectangular shapes do. In order to separate his series from the idea of "multiples" in sculpture, an idea that he despised, de Maria wrote a series of rules and conditions for each High Energy Bar. The list starts with his declaration that the bars are not a limited edition, and will continue to be made for the rest of his life, he connects himself to each bar with a printed certificate, and declares that the bars are non-transferable. Even if a bar is gifted or sold, "that new person would have the first person's bar—he would not have the bar for himself, i.e., it would not be his bar."