Mary Miss (b New York, 27 May 1944). American sculptor, draughtsman, film maker and environmental artist. As a child she was taken by her father on many visits to early forts, Indian sites and abandoned mines. In Stuttgart with her family she saw the remains of demolished buildings as well as medieval towns and castle ruins, which left a strong impression. She studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA 1966), and at the Rhine Art School of Sculpture, Maryland Art Institute, Baltimore (MFA 1968). On a summer sculpture course at Colorado College, Colorado Springs (1963), she became aware of the work of John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Morris and of ideas initiated by contemporary Minimalist sculptors and land artists. Her early landscape works dealt primarily with the measurement of distances in relation to a specific location in a temporal work: for example, Untitled (wood, 12*6 ft [3.66*1.83 m] sections at 50 ft [15.25 m] intervals, 1973; New York, Battery Park landfill), intended to relate the visual with the physicality of the objects and landscape. Miss first exhibited in 1970 at the Whitney Annual and exhibited regularly from 1972. Later works draw on the architecture, landscape design, gardens and history of worldwide cultures. Her films include Cut-off, focusing on the interaction of landscape, viewer and set. Photographs taken during walking treks in various parts of the world inform her practice.
- Photo by Mary Beth Edelson
- Courtesy of Michelle Stuart
- Photo by Mary Beth Edelson
