Landslide 2014 Launches in New York City
The bright, jubilant paintings by artist Marylyn Dintenfass created the perfect environment - and shook off the effects of the rainy weather outside - for the well-attended October 22 announcement at the artist's Chelsea studio of Landslide 2014: Art and the Landscape. Or, as one attendee succinctly noted: “You could not have asked for worse weather or a better turn-out!”
(upper) left to right, Katie Hearn, Charles Birnbaum, Karyn Seltzer, and
Marylyn Dintenfass; (lower) TCLF Board Member Joeb Moore looks at the
Landslide 2014 sites with Lindsey Taylor.The excitement and energy of that evening was reflected in the days and weeks that followed by the sustained coast-to-coast press coverage Landslide received – the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle (front page), several National Public Radio stations, the Dallas Morning News, the Huffington Post (the lead feature on the Arts section homepage), Architizer, Artnet, HyperAllergic, and many others. Social media coverage was especially important in disseminating the list, with Landslide reaching Architizer’s 1.5 million Facebook followers, the Huffington Post’s 4.77 million Twitter followers and a global audience of millions. It was perhaps the most successful launch in Landslide’s eleven-year history.
It was also the first time that all four types of cultural landscapes – designed, ethnographic, historic and vernacular – were represented on a Landslide list. It also represented the longest time frame, covering works created over a 7,500-year period.
The impetus for focusing on “art and the landscape” was the imminent demolition in 2012 of Green Acres, an environmental installation by Athena Tacha. The work was commissioned by the State of New Jersey in honor of its similarly named land reclamation program. The campaign to save Green Acres united an untapped coalition of historic preservationists, design and fine art professionals, and organizations concerned about the site’s fate.
(upper) left to right, Marylyn Dintenfass, Joe Lewis, and John Driscoll;
(lower) left to right, Mary Miss, and Leo Villareal.A similarly diverse group of more than 100 people attend the Landslide launch event, which Ms. Dintenfass called “a bright and interested crowd,” including TCLF Board Members Suzanne Clary, Barbara S. Dixon, Shaun Duncan, Eric Groft, Joeb Moore, Mario Nievera, Douglas Reed, and Joan Shafran. Brad McKee, editor in chief of Landscape Architecture Magazine, Landslide's media partner represented the magazine and educational partner the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). In spirit, we were also joined by Sandra Reed, with Presenting Sponsor The Davey Tree Expert Company. Additional attendees included the NY-based artists Mary Miss and Leo Villareal (who are represented on Landslide by Greenwood Pond: Double Site, Des Moines, Iowa, and the Bay Lights, San Francisco, California, respectively), along with representatives from three of the Landslide sites – Tad and Pat Richards on behalf of Opus 40; Katie Hearn on behalf of the Heidelberg Project, Detroit, Michigan; and Joe Lewis on behalf of the Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art, Joshua Tree, California. Mr. Lewis said, “We are a very small dedicated group who believe in Noah's ideas and practice, and your recognition of our pursuit and its challenges is a welcome acknowledgement of our collective passion.”
Members of Unite to Save the Frick also attended and live tweeted from the event, and the evening even had a signature cocktail – made from sparkling wine, pear vodka, elderflower cordial, lemon – called a "Frickly Pear" in honor of the Frick garden's Landslide listing.
Our thanks to Marylyn Dintenfass for sharing her art-filled studio with us, to TCLF Board Member Mario Nievera, who underwrote the event, and to everyone who attended.
