Wim Beeren was the first curator /director of the Stedelijk Museum who bought for the collection of the SM a Walter de Maria. Others in the Netherlands, ao the Museum Boymans van Beuningen, would follow, but still there are not many works by de Maria to be found in dutch collections. Probably the main reason is not their appeal, but these works are hard to collect because of their sheer size and complexity. They need space….. a lot of space……
Complete rooms or even outside spaces have to be dedicated to one work ( see lightning field, de Maria’s most famous work) and that is for many Museums and collectors the main reason not to include a de Maria. Still whenever there is a retrospective in a museum, visitors are impressed and one can easily see why. Look at the video and get a nice impression of his qualities of his form of LAND ART.
and of course visit www.ftn-books.com for some nice publications.
