High Energy Bar and Certificate 1966

This bar of industrial material was made by Walter De Maria, who was part of a generation of artists who asked what art could be, by making it into something new. I feel sympathy for any artist who tries to wrestle with these kinds of elemental forms. It's like trying to capture smoke or hold water in your hands. This bar is so simple, so pure, it's almost like an idea, not an object. What was De Maria thinking when he made it? Maybe that perfection can be found in the everyday, in the mundane. Think of Carl Andre, Donald Judd, or even Barnett Newman; they all had something to say about the sublime power of reduction. I see this piece as part of that conversation, a continuation of the quest to find meaning in the simplest of forms. It's as if De Maria is saying, "Here, look at this. What do you see? What do you feel?"