Maya Lin

• Name — Maya Lin • Birth Name — Maya Ying Lin • Born — 5 October 1959 • Birthplace — Athens, Ohio, U.S. • Citizenship — American • Field — Land art, architecture, memorials • Training — Yale University (BA, MArch) • Works — Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) Civil Rights Memorial (1989) • Awards — National Medal of Arts Presidential Medal of Freedom • Website — mayalin.com • Children — 2

• T — 林瓔 • S — 林璎 • P — Lín Yīng Maya Ying Lin (born October 5, 1959) is an American architect, designer, and sculptor. Born in Athens, Ohio, to Chinese immigrants, she attended Yale University to study architecture. She has an older brother, the poet Tan Lin. In 1981, while still an undergraduate at Yale, Lin achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial was designed in the minimalist architectural style, and it attracted controversy upon its release but went on to become influential. Lin has since designed numerous memorials, public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures. In 1989, she designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Although best-known for historical memorials, Lin is also known for environmentally themed works that often address environmental decline. According to Lin, she draws inspiration from the architecture of nature but believes that nothing she creates can match its beauty. She also draws inspirations from "culturally diverse sources, including Japanese gardens, Hopewell Indian earthen mounds and works by American earthworks artists of the 1960s and the 1970s".

Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio. Her parents emigrated from China to the United States, her father in 1948 and her mother in 1949, and settled in Ohio before Lin was born. Her father, Henry Huan Lin, born in Fuzhou, Fujian, was a ceramist and dean of the Ohio University College of Fine Arts. Her mother, Julia Chang Lin, born in Shanghai, was a poet and professor of literature at Ohio University. She is the "half" niece of Lin Huiyin, who was an American-educated artist and poet, and said to have been the first female architect in modern China; Lin Chang-min, a Hanlin of Qing dynasty and the emperor's teacher, fathered Lin Huiyin with his wife, while Maya Lin's father Henry Huan Lin was Lin Chang-Min’s son by his concubine. Lin Juemin and Lin Yin Ming, both of whom were among the 72 martyrs of the Second Guangzhou uprising, were cousins of her grandfather. According to Lin, she "didn't even realize" she was ethnically Chinese until later in life, and that only in her 30s did she acquire an interest in her cultural background. Lin has said that she did not have many friends when growing up, stayed home a lot, loved to study, and loved school. While still in high school she took courses at Ohio University where she learned to cast bronze in the school's foundry. She graduated in 1977 from Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio, after which she attended Yale University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and a Master of Architecture in 1986.

According to Lin, she has been concerned with environmental issues since she was very young, and dedicated much of her time at Yale University to environmental activism. She attributes her interest in the environment to her upbringing in rural Ohio: the nearby Hopewell and Adena Native America burial mounds inspired her from an early age. Noting that much of her later work has focused on the relationship people have with their environment, as expressed in her earthworks, sculptures, and installations, Lin said: According to the scholar Susette Min, Lin's work uncovers "hidden histories" to bring attention to landscapes and environments that would otherwise be inaccessible to viewers and "deploys the concept to discuss the inextricable relationship between nature and the built environment". Lin's focus on this relationship highlights the impact humanity has on the environment, and draws attention to issues such as global warming, endangered bodies of water, and animal extinction/endangerment. She has explored these issues in her recent memorial, called What Is Missing? According to one commentator, Lin constructs her works to have a minimal effect on the environment by utilizing recycled and sustainable materials, by minimizing carbon emissions, and by attempting to avoid damaging the landscapes/ecosystems where she works. In addition to her other activities as an environmentalist, Lin has served on the Natural Resources Defense Council board of trustees.

Lin, who now owns and operates Maya Lin Studio in New York City, has designed numerous projects following the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama (1989) and the Wave Field outdoor installation at the University of Michigan (1995). Lin is represented by the Pace Gallery in New York City.

• Peace-Chapel (completed in 1989), for the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and Juniata College. Lin was approached by Elizabeth Evans Baker to design the open-aired chapel, perched on top of a mountain, and set within a 14 acre site. The chapel represented in one place the connections between peace, art, spirituality, and nature. The site consists of a circle of stones for "pews", the ground of the earth for a floor, and the boundless sky for a ceiling overhead. The chapel is located within the 170 acre Baker-Henry Nature Preserve in Huntingdon, PA. • Wave Field (completed in 1995), for the University of Michigan. Lin was inspired by both diagrams of fluids in motion and photographs of ocean waves. She was intrigued by the idea of capturing and freezing the motion of water and wished to capture that movement in the earth rather than through photography. Wave Field was her first experiment with earthworks. • Confluence Project (completed in 2000), a series of outdoor installations at historical points along the Columbia River and Snake River in the states of Washington and Oregon. • Eleven Minute Line (completed in 2004), an earthwork in Sweden that was designed for the Wanås Foundation. Lin drew inspiration from the Serpent Mounds (Native American burial mounds) located in her home state, Ohio. It is meant to be a walkway for the viewers to experience, taking eleven minutes to complete. The work was inspired by Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. • A new plaza (completed in 2005), at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. • Waterline (completed in 2006), composed of aluminum tubing and paint. Lin has described the piece as a drawing instead of a sculpture. It is a to-scale representation of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, and it is installed so that viewers may walk on the underwater mountain range. One critic saw in the work a purposeful ambiguity as to where the actual water line was in relation to the mountain range, which highlighted the viewers' relationship to the environment and the effect they had on bodies of water. • Bodies of Water series (completed in 2006), consisting of representations of three bodies of water: "The Black Sea"; "The Caspian Sea"; and "The Red Sea". Each sculpture is made of layers of birch plywood, and are to-scale representations of three endangered bodies of water. The sculptures are balanced on the deepest point of the sea. Lin wished to call attention to the "unseen ecosystems" that people continue to pollute. • Input (with her brother, poet Tan Lin, completed in 2004). Lin was commissioned by Ohio University to design what is known as Input in that institution's Bicentennial Park, a landscape designed to resemble a computer punch card. The work relates to Lin's first official connection with the university. The daughter of the late Professor Emerita of English Julia Lin and the late Henry Lin, dean emeritus of the College of Fine Arts, Maya Lin studied computer programming at the university while in high school. The installation is located in a 3.5 acre park. It has 21 rectangles, some raised and some depressed, resembling the holes in computer punch cards, a mainstay of early programming courses. • Above and Below (completed in 2007), an outdoor sculpture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indiana. The artwork is made of aluminum tubing that has been electrolytically colored by anodization. • 2 × 4 Landscape (completed in 2008), a 30 ST sculpture made of many pieces of wood, which was exhibited at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, in San Francisco. The sculpture itself is evocative of the swelling movement of water, which is juxtaposed with the dry materiality of the lumber pieces. According to Lin, 2 × 4 Landscape was her attempt to bring the experience of Wavefield (1995) indoors. The 2 × pieces are also meant to be reminiscent of pixels, to evoke the "virtual or digital space that we are increasingly occupying". • Wave Field (completed in 2008), at the Storm King Art Center in New York state. It is the center's first earthwork, spanning 4 acre of land, and is a larger version of her original Wave Field (1995) that focuses on the "fusion of opposites", comparing the motion of water to the material of the earth. • Design of a building (2009) for the Museum of Chinese in America, near New York City's Chinatown. Lin said that she found the project to be personally significant, explaining that she wants her two daughters to "know that part of their heritage". • Silver River (2009), her first work of art in the Las Vegas Strip. It is part of a public fine art collection at MGM Mirage's CityCenter, which opened in December 2009. Lin created an 84 ft cast of the Colorado River made entirely of reclaimed silver. With the sculpture, Lin wanted to make a statement about water conservation and the importance of the Colorado River to Nevada in terms of energy and water. The sculpture is displayed behind the front desk of the Aria Resort and Casino. • Pin River - Sandy (completed in 2013) was a work Lin created in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Displayed in the Pace Gallery of New York, it stands at 114 ×. The work was meant to represent the flood zone of Hurricane Sandy. She wanted this piece to raise awareness of how New York City used to be, and how the natural oyster beds and salt marshes would protect from the storm surges. • A Fold in the Field (completed in 2013). Her largest work to date, it was built from 105000 m3 of earth fill, covering 3 ha. It forms part of a private collection within a sculpture park, owned by Alan Gibbs, north of Auckland, New Zealand. • Since around 2010, Lin has been working on what she calls "her final memorial", the What Is Missing? Foundation, to commemorate the biodiversity that has been lost in the planet's sixth mass extinction. She aims to raise awareness about the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats by using sound, media, science, and art for temporary installations and a web-based project. What Is Missing? exists not in one specific site but in many forms and in many places simultaneously. • From 2015 to 2021, Lin worked on the renovation and reconfiguration of the Neilson Library and its grounds at Smith College. A project in Madison Square Park, "Ghost Forest", was postponed until 2021.

On February 25, 2010, the Obama administration awarded Lin the 2009 National Medal of Arts. Both What is Missing and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial were referenced by the Obama administration in its press release that announced Lin as one of the 2016 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Nature and the environment have been central concerns for Lin in both her art and architecture. When informed of her win, Lin noted: "As an artist I often work in series, and so for me, I wanted my last memorial to be on a subject that I have personally been concerned with and connected to since I was a child. The last memorial is 'What Is Missing?' and encompasses multiple platforms, with temporary and permanent physical installations as well as an interactive online component." At the same time, Lin also expressed her concerns for the goals of the upcoming Trump administration: "I think nature is resilient— if we protect it—and with my background I wanted to lend a voice to the incredible threat we are under from climate change and species and habitat loss."

• Il Cortile Mare (1998-1999), an exhibition of furniture design, maquettes, and photos of works at the American Academy in Rome. • Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes (2008-2009), an exhibition of Lin's sculptures, drawings, and installations at the de Young Museum, San Francisco.

• Maya Lin, Boundaries (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

Lin was married to Daniel Wolf (1955–2021), a photography dealer and collector, until his death. Her sister-in-law was the philanthropist Diane R. Wolf (1954–2008). She has homes in New York and rural Colorado, and is the mother of two daughters, India and Rachel. Lin has an older brother, the poet Tan Lin.

Lin has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, and Smith College. In 1987, she was among the youngest to be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Yale University. In 1994, she was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. Its title comes from an address she gave at Juniata College in which she spoke of the monument design process in the origin of her work; "My work originates from a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings and this can include not just the physical but the psychological world that we live in." In 2002, Lin was elected Alumni Fellow of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University (upon whose campus sits another of Lin's designs, the Women's Table, designed to commemorate the role of women at Yale University), in an unusually public contest. Her opponent was W. David Lee, a local New Haven minister and graduate of the Yale Divinity School, who was running on a platform to build ties to the community with the support of Yale's unionized employees. Lin was supported by Yale President Richard Levin and other members of the Yale Corporation, and she was the officially endorsed candidate of the Association of Yale Alumni. In 2003, Lin was chosen to serve on the selection jury of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. A trend toward minimalism and abstraction was noted among the entrants and the finalists as well as in the chosen design for the World Trade Center Memorial. In 2005, Lin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. President Barack Obama awarded Lin the National Medal of Arts in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. In 2022, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. announced the first biographical exhibition, "One Life: Maya Lin", dedicated to Lin, noting her contributions as architect, sculptor, environmentalist, and designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

• Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM) (1980–82), Washington, D.C. • Aligning Reeds (1985), New Haven, Connecticut • Civil Rights Memorial (1988–89), Montgomery, Alabama • Open-Air Peace Chapel (1988–89), Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania • Topo (1989–91), Charlotte Sports Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina • Eclipsed Time (1989–95), Pennsylvania Station, New York City • The Women's Table (1990–93), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut • Weber House (1991–93), Williamstown, Massachusetts • Groundswell (1992–93), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio • Museum for African Art (1992–93), New York City • Wave Field (1993–95), FXB Aerospace Engineering Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan • 10 Degrees North (1993–96), Rockefeller Foundation Headquarters, New York City • A Shift in the Stream (1995–97), Principal Financial Group Headquarters, Des Moines, Iowa • Reading a Garden (1996–98), Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio • Private Duplex Apartment, New York City (1996–98), New York • Topographic Landscape (1997) (Portable sculpture) • Phases of the Moon (1998) (Portable sculpture) • Avalanche (1998) (Portable sculpture) • Langston Hughes Library (1999), Clinton, Tennessee • Timetable (2000), Stanford University, Stanford, California • The character of a hill, under glass (2000–01), American Express Client Services Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota • Ecliptic (2001), Grand Rapids, Michigan • Input (2004), Bicentennial Park, Athens, Ohio • Riggio-Lynch Chapel (2004), Clinton, Tennessee • Arts Plaza, Claire Trevor School of the Arts (2005), Irvine, California • Confluence Project: Cape Disappointment State Park (2006) • Above and Below, Indianapolis Museum of Art (2007) • Confluence Project: Vancouver Land Bridge (2008) • Confluence Project: Sandy River Delta (2008) • Confluence Project: Sacajawea State Park (2010) • Ellen S. Clark Hope Plaza, Washington University in St. Louis (2010) • Confluence Project: Chief Timothy Park (2011) • A Fold in the Field (2013), The Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand • "What is Missing? (2009–present), (Various locations, web project) • Under the Laurentide, Brown University (2015) • Folding the Chesapeake (part of Wonder exhibit): Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC (2015) • Neilson Library (2021), Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (redesign) • Ghost Forest (2021), Madison Square Park, New York, New York

The authorities additionally record the heading Maya Ying Lin. Her recorded language was English. She was the child of Henry Huan Lin and Julia Chang Lin.

Her work is associated with contemporary art. She belonged to American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Committee of 100. She worked at Montgomery, Colorado, New Haven and Miami.

Maya Lin is recorded with the occupation architect. Recorded as architect, sculptor, land artist and landscape architect.