Maya Lin

Short Biography

Maya Lin was still an undergraduate at Yale University when she won the national design competition for a Vietnam War veterans memorial to be built near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Amid controversy over her untraditional design (and, remarkably, complaints that it had been created by a young woman of Chinese descent), the memorial was completed in 1982. It became the most visited monument in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin has gone on to design other memorials, landscape sculptures and private residences.b Athens, OH, 5 Oct 1959). American sculptor and architect. She studied at Yale University (1977-81), New Haven, CT, graduating with an MFA in Architecture. Her best-known work is the Vietnam Veterans` Memorial (1981-83) on the National Mall in Washington, DC. While she was still a student (in 1981), her design was selected from 1421 final entries to a competition initiated by the Vietnam Veterans` Memorial Fund for a memorial to be built in the capital. Its purpose was to commemorate those who fought and died in the War and to help reconcile some of the differences that the War had provoked among the American public, government leaders and war veterans. Lin`s design created a new paradigm for memorials. The monument both serves its complex and particular purpose and re-evaluates completely the traditional form of the public monument. It is a low V-shaped black granite wall partially submerged in the manner of ancient burial sites; the names of all those who died or went missing are inscribed on it. Its reflective surface means that those who view it and read the roll-call of names become immediate participants in the experience of remembering the dead. Names of servicemen and women are recorded in the order in which they perished, from 1959-1975, giving the memorial a sense of real time in history. The viewer recognizes the singularity of each name, while also having a clear sense of the huge number of names making up the whole list. The memorial`s Minimalist design aroused controversy and provoked profound feelings about grief and the Vietnam War in general. On 11 Nov 1984 a more traditional memorial by Frederick Hart, showing three American servicemen, was dedicated near by. Lin also designed the Civil Rights Memorial, a granite fountain, in Montgomery, AL, dedicated in November 1989, and in 1991 worked on an outdoor sculpture for Yale University, New Haven, CT, honouring the women of that institution.