Sculptor Walter De Maria was born on October 1, 1935, in California, USA. He passed away on July 25, 2013.
He enrolled in the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1953. After graduating in 1959, he moved to New York and began his career as a sculptor. His work, strongly influenced by Dada, displays characteristics of Minimalism, such as simple geometric patterns created with mass-produced materials like aluminum. In 1963, he opened a gallery in New York and held his first solo exhibition. He then began creating installations, and De Maria's name gradually began to attract attention.
It was around this time that De Maria also broadened his scope of activity, beginning to compose musicals and shoot films. He also became active as a musician, joining the rock band The Velvet Underground as drummer in 1963.

In 1968, De Maria exhibited his "Mile Long Drawing," a work in which he continuously drew parallel lines 12 feet apart with chalk in the Mojave Desert, and from then on, this type of land art became one of his life's work. Among these, his most famous work is "Lightning Field," exhibited in 1977. For this work, De Maria installed 400 stainless steel poles in a grid pattern stretching one mile east to west and one kilometer north to south in a lightning-prone area in western New Mexico. By guiding lightning to the poles, he created light art there.