Dragged Mass Geometric 1992
(Detail)
Lithographs printed in tones of black on paper and Mylar, acrylic paint on Mylars, punched holes, cotton cord, push pins, steel nuts, C-clamp
78 1/8 x 162 inches (198.4 x 411.5 cm)
Unique collage installation
The Menil Collection, Houston
Gift of Richard Newlin, Yoko Saito, Houston Fine Art Press
Michael Heizer was born in Berkeley, California, in 1944, the son of the anthropologist Robert Heizer. After briefly attending the San Francisco Art Institute in 1963–64 he moved to New York. In 1967 Heizer began creating large earthworks, primarily in California and Nevada.
For his first one-person show, at the Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich in 1969, he removed 1,000 tons of earth in a conical shape to create Munich Depression. He followed this with Double Negative, a displacement of over 240,000 tons of earth to make two vast incisions opposite one another on the edge of Virgin River mesa, Nevada. Heizer's next one-person show was at the Dwan Gallery, New York, in 1970 and that same year he exhibited in the International Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Major exhibitions of his work have been staged at institutions such as the Museum Folkwang, Essen (1979), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1984). Heizer lives in Nevada, where he continues to work on City, a sculptural complex begun in 1970 currently supported by Dia and Lannan Foundation.
Adapted from the artist's biography published by the Dia Art Foundation
Michael Kimmelman, "Art's Last, Lonely Cowboy." New York Times Magazine, February 6, 2005
"Michael Heizer's 'City'" Public Art Foundation Greater Des Moines, January 2, 2012
Michael Kimmelman, "Michael Heizer: A Sculptur's Colossus of the Desert." The New York Times, December 12, 1999
Jori Finkel,"Michael Heizer's calling is set in stone." Los Angeles Times. May 25, 2012
Levitated Mass at LACMA