Maya Lin
Maya Lin (1959 - present)
Born Maya Ying Lin on October 5, 1959, in Athens, OH. Her mother and father were professors at Ohio University. Lin's mother was a professor of literature, and her father was the dean of the College of Fine Arts.
Lin took art courses at Ohio University while she was in high school. She attended Yale University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (1981), and a Master of Architecture (1986).
In 1981, she won the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design contest. Lin was just 21 years old, and was a senior in college. She beat out 1,421 other artists who submitted submissions!
President Barack Obama awarded Lin with the National Medal of Arts in 2009, and The Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Most know for her earliest work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC, Maya Lin has since created many more public works of art over the last four decades, including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL, and Ghost Forest in NYC. She is very interested in the environment, climate change, and the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Wave Field sits on the campus of the University of Michigan. It is a work of art and also a memorial to François-Xavier Bagnoud, a 1982 graduate who died at the age of 24 in a tragic helicopter crash. His mother, Countess Albina du Boisroubray started a foundation in his name after his death. Today, the FXB International organization works to end poverty and empower people throughout the world. There is also the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at Harvard University, which aims to make human rights possible for all people, especially children, across the globe.
What do you notice? ✏️ What do you wonder? ✏️ What do you like or dislike?
Artist of the Week 2.0 Maya Lin.pdfLin Worksheet
Maya Lin with her winning Vietnam Veterans Memorial design, 1981.
Ariel view of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial