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With 500 acres, Storm King Art Center can hardly be called a sculpture garden. As its 100 installations interact and even change the grounds of the Art Center, it is more aptly described as a sculpture landscape.
In 1960, Ralph E. Ogden opened a small museum for local painters an hour north of Manhattan. Within a few years, the picturesque setting around the museum had begun a transformation, quickly attracting the sculptures and installations of a number of famous artists including Roy Lichtenstein and Isamu Noguchi. As steam built for the creation, the Storm King Art Center began receiving more art donations, as well as some installations made specifically for Storm King.
As the grounds of the living museum swelled to 500 acres, the park took on a new life, weaving itself into the rolling landscape. Storm King Art Center spent the next 40 years, developing a philosophy of integrating art and nature.
No work better sums up the philosophy and style of art at Storm King than Maya Lin’s “Storm King Wavefield.” The massive installation created for the grounds, is composed of seven giant man-made hills that appear to move. Giving the grounds a dynamic illusion of motion, the “Wavefield,” is not just on the grounds, but a part of them, swaying with the breeze and set dramatically against the hills and woodlands around Storm King.
Although large installations dominate Storm King, the museum itself houses nine galleries and a wide variety of works. Consistent with the idea of improving and blending into the landscape, the museum is extremely aesthetically pleasing and is housed inside an 85-year-old chateau. Visitors are invited to come and wander the grounds, interacting with the art and the scenery simultaneously.
