Nancy Holt

Nancy Holt graduated Tufts University with a biology degree in 1960. Despite this, she moved to New York after graduating and starting working in video, sound, and installation. With this experience, she later moved on to create sculptural sites that allow visitors to engage with the landscape. Her photography background is thought to have influenced her sculptures, given their shared elements of cylindrical form and light. Much of her work, which can be referred to as land art, has been described as literal seeing devices for tracking the positions of the sun, earth and stars. Holt’s husband, Robert Smithson, was a renowned land artist and one of the founders of the Land Art Movement. As a key member of the movement herself, Holt believed it emerged in America due to the vastness of the country’s landscape.

Land art emerged in the 1960s as a result of the rising environmentalist trend at the time in the U.S. It was a movement that used the natural landscape as a place to create art forms and sculptures. In doing this, the art was subjected to erosion and the natural elements. Artists often favored materials from nature that were specific to the location, which gave rise to site-specificity. Creating art in this manner was a response to the over-commercialized characteristic of art that people had grown accustomed to.

Rock Rings draft

Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings was constructed during 1977 and 1978, during the Land Art Movement. The sculpture maps the layout of the north star, with its arches running north and south accordingly, and it uses reference points to frame and focus the landscape. Rock Rings was created with site-specificity in mind. The North Star has a long history of being used by boaters to navigate, which reflects Bellingham’s identity as a coastal city. Furthermore the sculpture is composed of schist stones imported from British Columbia. The design demonstrates a sense of harmony and creates an experience within the surrounding geography.

by Payton Dickerson & Gretchen Visperas

104, Art & Culture. “Stone Enclosure, Nancy Holt.” Stone Enclosure, Nancy Holt. Blogger, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2017. <http://culturedart.blogspot.com/2010/11/stone-enclosure-nancy-holt.html>.

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Rock Rings draft. Digital image. MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017 <https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117286?locale=en>.

“Earth Art Movement, Artists and Major Works.” The Art Story. The Art Story Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. <http://www.theartstory.org/movement-earth-art.htm>.

Favero, Elissa. “Art Nerd Seattle.” Art Nerd Seattle RSS. Art Nerd LLC, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. <http://art-nerd.com/seattle/follow-the-north-star/>.

Holt, Nancy. “Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings, 1977-1978 – Nancy Holt.” Www.wikiart.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2017. <https://www.wikiart.org/en/nancy-holt/stone-enclosure-rock-rings-1978>.

“Nancy Holt | Avignon Locators 1972-2012.” Nancy Holt | Avignon Locators 1972-2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://www.nancyholt.com/holt.html>.

Nancy Holt. Digital image. Santa Fe Art Institute. Santa Fe Art Institute, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2017. <http://sfai.org/sfai-remembers-nancy-holt/>.

“Nancy Holt.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Holt>.

3D model and all other images credit: Payton Dickerson & Gretchen Visperas