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Essay The Art of Maya Lin

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Maya Lin is a driven and innovative artist of our time. Many of her works have been seen as controversial and received harsh criticism. She manages to trudge on. Her works express both an artistic and mathematical feel, somehow finding a beautiful marriage between. Her obsession with art and knowledge can be greatly attributed to her parents, as she was very successful at an early age. Her art career is one of many triumphs and breaking boundaries in the art world. Lin has a great love for nature, and many of her pieces help to express the significance of this, and she loves to enthrall the audience. Maya Lin was born on October 5th, 1959 in …show more content…

While attending Yale University she entered a grueling art competition amid 1500 fellow artists, and won, at the young age of twenty-one. The contest was to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Washington,D.C. She did extensive research for the wall on subjects ranging from cultural memorials through out history to soldiers journals from World War I. The completion of the wall turned out to be her breaking moment in the world of art. After creating her visionary Vietnam Veterans Memorial she suffered much controversy and criticism. Many Veterans believed her simple black wall with listed names was a “black wall of shame”(Ergas 265) and insulting to the traditional idea of white marble and statues of soldiers the veterans had expected. Critics even began using her asian background to discriminate against her, which had not been an issue for Lin before this time. Even Ross Pero after finding out she was asian was heard to call her an egg roll. Lin feels if her lineage had been known at the time of the contest she never would have won. This criticism almost caused Lin to exit the world of art forever, if it hadn’t been for the immense impact the wall had on visitors and the sheer number of them. Many visitors found closure and rejoice in finding there loved ones names and leaving flowers. The rubbings of loved ones names even

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