Walter De Maria

[a happy little man]

Walter De Maria began as a visual artist, and eventually experimented with sound. He started playing with music and played drums and later created films. His music was a precursor to The Velvet Underground. De Maria did all kinds of art; 2D, 3D, film, and music throughout his artistic career. His art had a sense of space and echo. The two "songs" he created embody a large space, as does his visual art.

"Cricket Music" (1964)

"Ocean Music" (1968)

Both songs show De Maria's use of space and echo, whether it's a loud repeating drum and then silence, or the crash of ocean waves. The drumbeat slowly goes out of sync and instead of a solid beat, creates an echoed noise from a large empty space. The ocean waves show crashing patterns that make the listener think of the large outdoor space when the water is. De Maria's sculptures visually represent his sounds that he created. He was also inspired by visual modern artists and his audible work developing in the 60's was viewed as minimalist because of his different and abstract take on sound.

"Equal Area Series", 1977

"Mile Long Drawing", 1968