Earlier in September 2022, news about the opening of an entire sculptural city in Nevada was circulating. Who is Michael Heizer, the US artist behind the unprecedented endeavour that cost an estimated US$40mil to build over fifty years?

One of the leading figures of land art, Heizer (born 1944, in Berkeley) is known for his use of natural materials like stone in monumental sculptures, typically imposed on outdoor landscapes.

He grew up in California and took painting classes at the San Francisco Art Institute – although, much like the artist Bruce Nauman, moved away from the medium and focused on sculpture across his long practice. 

Shortly after graduation, he moved to New York where he met artists like Walter De Maria, Carl Andre and Dan Flavin. He also met the German gallerist Heiner Friedrich with whom he would form a formative relationship that would last until today.

Heizer’s father was an anthropologist, while his grandfather was a geologist, and his travels and exposure to ancient sites and natural materials profoundly influenced his practice.

Between 1968 and 1969, he began working with large-scale art outdoors, frequently travelling towards Nevada’s Mojave Desert with other artists.

“As long as you’re going to make a sculpture, why not make one that competes with a 747, or the Empire State Building, or the Golden Gate Bridge?” he once said. 

At only 25 years old, he held his first solo show for Friedrich’s gallery in Munich, Germany, with the work Munich Depression (1969) – removing 1,000 tons of earth from a 16-foot pit, later supplementing it with photography documentation.

For one of his most famous works, Double Negative (1969), he used explosives to create two colossal trenches near Overton, Nevada. The work is now considered to be one of the most famous examples of land art.

Finding New York to be “expensive and limiting” for works of such massive size, he eventually packed up and moved to Nevada where he is still currently based today.

“I came for the space and because it was cheap land. I don't care if you see the mountains,” he confessed in a 1999 New York Times interview.

He started on his life’s work in 1972, “City”. As the name suggests – the work is an entire sculptural city and took the artist a whopping fifty years to complete. It was finally inaugurated in September 2022.

For the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), he unveiled Levitated Mass in 2012 – a 340-ton “levitating” boulder that visitors can walk through. The work of public art is one of the major highlights of the museum. 

Along with artists like Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, and Walter De Maria, the artist pioneered the land art movement (not to be confused with sustainable art).

FAMOUS WORKS BY MICHAEL HEIZER

‘NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, WEST’ (2002)

Permanently on view indoors at Dia Beacon in New York is Heizer’s North, East, South, West (1967/2002), which consists of four massive, 20-feet depressions coated with weathering steel – giving visitors an eerie and unexpected look below.

Heizer first conceptualised the work, one of many in which he explores negative space, in 1967 in the Sierra Nevada.

‘COMPRESSION LINE’ (2016)

The Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, features the commissioned piece by Heizer, Compression Line (2016), first conceptualised for the Mojave Desert back in 1968.

To create the work, the ground was dug up with the use of machinery, a rectangular piece of steel was placed, and the soil was reinserted to create a distinct pinched effect. Red argillite flooring and trees make up the backdrop for the piece, dramatically changing its appeal with the change of seasons.

‘COLLAPSE’ (2016)

In addition to Compression Line, Heizer has a second work on view in Glenstone Museum’s Room 5 that was unveiled at the same time.

The large-scale installation Collapse (2016) – first conceived in 1967 – features 15 colossal steel beams leaning against one another in a 16-foot rectangular pit in an outdoor enclosure. The rusty beams interplay with and hide the negative space below.

‘DOUBLE-NEGATIVE’ (1969)

Located 80 miles from Las Vegas in Mormon Mesa, Overton, Double Negative is one of Michael Heizer’s earliest and most famous works.

The artist used explosives to remove 240,000 tons of rhyolite and sandstone to create two trenches together measuring 1,500 feet long.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) “acquired” the work in 1985 for its permanent collection, resulting in humorous headlines like “New MOCA Acquisition is a Hole in The Ground”.

‘LEVITATED MASS’ (2012)

A 340-ton boulder seemingly floats in a pathway at the LACMA. Heizer’s Levitated Mass (2012) took a total of eleven days for transportation to the museum.

During installation, the artist lived for six weeks in a trailer on the museum grounds; the process was so bewildering that the documentary director Doug Pray explored it in his 2013 documentary Levitated Mass.  

‘CITY’ (2022)

In 1970, Heizer started purchasing parcels of land in the Nevada desert to build his largest work, “City”, using natural materials like clay, sand, and rock. 

Over the years, he garnered financial support, and the work grew in funding. After 50 years of work and an estimated US$40 million invested, Heizer’s masterpiece was finally unveiled in September 2022. 

“City” is currently operated by the Nevada non-profit Triple Aught Foundation and only six visitors are allowed daily. It’s the largest work of art in the world.

Cover: City, 1970 – 2022 © Michael Heizer. Courtesy Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Eric Piasecki

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Writer | Bana Bissat

Bana Bissat is a Milan-based writer who reports on sound art for Sound of Life. She has written for Flash Art, Lampoon, and Cultured. @banabissat

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