Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park
Encyclopedia
Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park (or Earl W. Brydges State Artpark) is located in the Village of Lewiston
in Niagara County, New York
, named after Earl Brydges
. It is generally referred to as Artpark, and was created on the site of a former industrial waste dump. Located on the property is the Lewiston Mound
, an archaeological site
on the National Register of Historic Places
.
This park is a venue of summer musical entertainment. The park also offers picnic tables and pavilions, fishing, hiking, nature trail, a performing arts theater, recreation programs and cross-country skiing.
's death, and had an artist's residency program in his honor. It became an important site for works of the Land Art
movement. It was the site of Alan Sonfist
's Pool of Earth, a 25 feet (7.6 m) clay basin for catching aerial seeds,
and projects by several women artists in the 1970s, including Michelle Stuart
, Alice Adams
and Agnes Denes
and Nancy Holt
.
It continued to be an important laboratory for outdoor sculpture.
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 2,781 at the 2000 census. The village is named after Morgan Lewis, an early 19th-century governor of New York. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.The Village of Lewiston,...
in Niagara County, New York
Niagara County, New York
Niagara County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 216,469. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word Onguiaahra; meaning the strait or thunder of waters. It is the location of Niagara Falls and Fort Niagara, and...
, named after Earl Brydges
Earl Brydges
Earl William Brydges was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Majority Leader of the New York State Senate from 1966 to 1972-Life:...
. It is generally referred to as Artpark, and was created on the site of a former industrial waste dump. Located on the property is the Lewiston Mound
Lewiston Mound
Lewiston Mound is a prehistoric burial mound built by the indigenous peoples of the Hopewell tradition. It is located on the grounds of the Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park, at Lewiston in Niagara County, New York....
, an archaeological site
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
This park is a venue of summer musical entertainment. The park also offers picnic tables and pavilions, fishing, hiking, nature trail, a performing arts theater, recreation programs and cross-country skiing.
Land Art
Artpark was founded in 1974, one year after Robert SmithsonRobert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
's death, and had an artist's residency program in his honor. It became an important site for works of the Land Art
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...
movement. It was the site of Alan Sonfist
Alan Sonfist
Alan Sonfist is a New York City based American artist most often associated with the Land or Earth Art movement.He is best known for his "Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia Place in New York City's Greenwich Village. Proposed in 1965, "Time Landscape" the...
's Pool of Earth, a 25 feet (7.6 m) clay basin for catching aerial seeds,
and projects by several women artists in the 1970s, including Michelle Stuart
Michelle Stuart
Michelle Stuart through her art has created complex, multifaceted investigations of the relationship between nature and culture for over four decades,. Her artworks range in scale from monumental earthworks to intimate talismanic sculptures...
, Alice Adams
Alice Adams (artist)
Alice Adams is an American artist known for her sculpture and site specific land art in the 1970s and since 1986 for her major public art projects in transit systems, airports, university campuses and other urban sites throughout the United States...
and Agnes Denes
Agnes Denes
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....
and Nancy Holt
Nancy Holt
Nancy Holt is an American artist famous for her public sculpture, installation art and land art. Throughout her career, Holt has also produced works in other mediums, including film, photography, and writing artist’s books.-Biography:...
.
It continued to be an important laboratory for outdoor sculpture.
Land Art and other visual art at Artpark
- Hydra's Head Nancy Holt 1974
- Bingo Gordon Matta-ClarkGordon Matta-ClarkGordon Matta-Clark was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his "building cuts," a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.-Life and work:Both of Gordon Matta-Clark's...
(also at nearby Love CanalLove CanalLove Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the white collar LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue...
) 1974 - Pool of Virgin Earth Alan SonfistAlan SonfistAlan Sonfist is a New York City based American artist most often associated with the Land or Earth Art movement.He is best known for his "Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia Place in New York City's Greenwich Village. Proposed in 1965, "Time Landscape" the...
1975 - Niagara Gorge Relocated Michelle Stuart 1975
- Dale ChihulyDale ChihulyDale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...
1975 - Rice/Tree/Burial Agnes Denes 1977 (re-creation)
- The Beginnings of a Complex..., Excerpt Shaft #4/ Five Walls Alice AycockAlice Aycock-Biography:Aycock studied at Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 1968. She then went to New York City where she studied for her masters at Hunter College, and where she was taught and supervised by Robert Morris; she graduated in 1971...
1977 - Shorings Alice AdamsAlice Adams (artist)Alice Adams is an American artist known for her sculpture and site specific land art in the 1970s and since 1986 for her major public art projects in transit systems, airports, university campuses and other urban sites throughout the United States...
1978 - Art Park Spoils Pile Reclamation Helen and Newton Harrison: A three-year project sponsored by the New York State Commission for Arts, National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, and the National Heritage Trust. (Project also in collaboration with Joshua Harrison).1977-1978 - Omega Owen Morrel 1980
- Merlin's Canopy Merle Temkin 1981
- Newton Discovering Gravity Dennis Oppenheim 1984