Agnes Denes, Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – With New York Financial Center, 1982. © the artist. Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan, Aerial View, 1982. © the artist. Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Planting and harvesting a field of wheat on the Battery Park Landhill, Manhattan in the summer of 1982 created a powerful paradox. The land at the time was worth $4.5 billion. Two blocks from Wall Street and what was then the World Trade Centre. Facing the Statue of Liberty, the hand sown wheat field was a symbol, a universal concept, referring to miss management, waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns.

The installation called the attention to misplaced priorities. The harvested grain travelled to 28 cities, in an exhibition called “The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger” organised by the Minnesota Museum of Art 1987-90.

How desperately sad that here we are nearly 40 years later and these problems still haven’t been resolved, Could it be said it’s worse?

The concerns raised here were of human values, our quality of life and the future of humanity. These notes were researched from Denes’ website before 9/11.

Where does ‘Wheatfield’ sit in today’s art world? Probably in a remarkably poignant position, not dated, quite the opposite, it has become more central, legible and arguable more urgent than when it was first created.

These themes are no longer marginal, but major in contemporary art, climate change and sustainability.

References

http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/ Accessed 18th May 2026

https://whitney.org/artists/345 Accessed 18th May 2026

https://www.theshed.org/program/6-agnes-denes-absolutes-and-intermediates Accessed 19th May 2026

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/agnes-denes-32726 Accessed 19th May 2026