As one of the most innovative artists of the last six decades, Walter De Maria challenged art in profound ways. He is known worldwide for his important sculptures such as Lightning Field, but his contributions to the practices of music, drawing, photography, and film have been largely forgotten. Featuring in-depth analysis of many previously unknown works and correspondence, this book offers the first major critical account of de Maria's broader range of interests. In a 1960 score, Walter De Maria called for "meaningless work: " art that does not "accomplish a conventional purpose." He followed this call with a dizzying period of experimentation. The resulting work reflected shifts in how we understand the sites of art during an era of moon shots and road trips, of wars that moved from jungles into living rooms via electromagnetic waves. It helped us understand ourselves and how race, gender, and sexuality vie for space in the social realm. By bringing to light de Maria's lesser-known works, this book challenges established histories and methodologies for the art of the 1960s and '70s, while also exploring de Maria's own obsessions with art's uttermost possibilities.

American artist Michelle Stuart (*1938 in California) is internationally known for a rich and diverse body of work stemming from her lifelong interest in the natural world and the cosmos. Working in drawing, sculpture, photography, video, installation and site-specific earthworks, she has pursued a subtle and responsive dialogue with nature, distinct from the epic gestures of American Land Art. Spanning the period from the late 1960s to the present day, this publication encompasses a varied and unconventional range of media, while highlighting Stuart's major contribution to the practice of drawing. During the seventies she won recognition for her monumental drawings made outdoors, which have the characteristics of specific sites ingrained in their surfaces. Other works respond to the Nazca Lines in Peru, the Uffington White Horse in the UK and New Mexican petroglyphs, pushing our understanding of drawing beyond the page. Featuring three new essays and an interview with Stuart, this publication will be the definitive resource on the pioneering artist's work to date. Exhibition schedule: Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside Art Centre, University of Nottingham, February 16-April 14, 2013 | Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, July 21-October 27, 2013 | Santa Barbara Museum of Art, January 26-April 20, 2014