The New York Times T Magazine takes a look at long-term art projects in the digital age.

Nancy Hass and Charles Ross, “In an early morning phone call from the site of “Star Axis,” his 11-story naked-eye observatory of sculptural forms in dirt, granite, sandstone, bronze and steel on a mesa in the New Mexico desert,” speak on the endurance of his monumental work.

Nancy Hass, The New York Times T Magazine, New York, published September 18, 2018.

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“Inspired by presentations of single-room artworks at the Dwan Gallery (1959–1971) and the exhibition Spaces (1969–1970) at the Museum of Modern Art, this installation features five significant minimal and post-minimal sculptures; several of these works have been donated to the Gallery by Virginia Dwan or given in her honor. Charles Ross’s luminous prismatic sculpture Hanging Islands, first shown at Finch College Museum of Art in New York in 1967 are refabricated by the artist for this presentation.”

On View:
Spaces: Works from the Collection, 1966-1976
The National Gallery of Art, East Building, Mezzanine – Gallery 214C, Washington DC
August 4, 2018, ongoing

Hanging Islands
conceived 1966, refabricated 2015
acrylic and metal (36 prisms)
overall (variable): 426.72 × 426.72 × 7.62 cm (168 × 168 × 3 in.)

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“Charles Ross’ Spectrum Chamber was recently installed at Mona as part of the extension to our museum, called Pharos. Mona curator Jarrod Rawlins spoke to Ross, who was in Hobart to oversee the completion of the artwork.”

Jarrod Rawlins of MONA with Charles Ross, MONA Blog, published May 31, 2018.

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“In 1965, Dwan established a gallery in New York where she presented groundbreaking exhibitions of such new tendencies as minimalism, conceptual art, and land art, featuring works by Carl Andre, Walter de Maria, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Charles Ross, Robert Ryman, and Robert Smithson, among others.”

Exhibition: Los Angeles to New York: Dawn Gallery, 1959-1971

The National Gallery of Art, East Building, Concourse 1, Washington DC
Exhibition dates: September 30, 2016 – January 29, 2017

LACMA, Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles CA
Exhibition dates: March 19, 2017–September 10, 2017

Installation view: National Gallery of Art

Charles Ross’s Star Axis (1971 – still in progress)
Photo of Star Axis by Kerry Loewen (2015)
Stack of 2 Prisms (1970), C. Ross (in foreground)

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Star Axis and Charles Ross are featured in “Troublemakers” by filmmaker James Crump.

“Troublemakers unearths the history of land art in the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s. The film features a cadre of renegade New York artists that sought to transcend the limitations of painting and sculpture by producing earthworks on a monumental scale in the desolate desert spaces of the American southwest.”

Premiered September 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, CA.

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Charles Ross: The Substance of Light is a comprehensive volume that covers over four decades of work and features full-color illustrations of his Solar Spectrum artworks, Star Axis, and his Solar Burns, Star Maps, Dynamite Paintings and Drawings, along with early work and selected architectural commissions, including solar spectrum for the Dwan Light Sanctuary.

This significant monograph includes major essays by Thomas McEvilley and Klaus Ottmann, an extensive interview with Loïc Malle, which profiles Ross’s life and art up to the present, as well as historical texts by Virginia Dwan, Anna Halprin, Michael Heizer, Steve Katz, Donald Kuspit, Ed Ranney, and Jean-Hubert Martin.

Charles Ross: The Substance of Light

Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books, 2012