New York circa 1970: an artistic Renaissance flourishes in the galleries and clubs of a chaotic metropolis. Yet a cadre of renegade artists — Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer — dream of building something more expansive than the city will allow. The monumental earthworks they create in the Southwestern desert challenge our definitions of “art” and cast our relationship with the Earth in a radical new light. This is the story of Land Art, of the conflicts and fantasies and legacies of 20th-century pyramid-builders gone wild in the desert.
Directed by James Crump. Produced by James Crump, Michel Comte, Ronnie Sassoon, and Farley Ziegler. Introduced by Peggy Parsons, Curator of Film, National Gallery of Art.