A monumental sculpture in the Nevada desert: it is Michael Heizer's City. Begun in 1970, it can now be visited

It is called City, it is a creation of Michael Heizer (Berkeley, 1944), one of the fathers of Land Art, it will open on September 2 in the Nevada desert, and it will be the largest contemporary artwork in the world.These are the characteristics of the project that has occupied Heizer from 1970 to the present. One and a half miles long and half a mile wide, City is a vast complex of shaped mounds and depressions made of compacted earth, rock and concrete. City is deliberately meant to recall, in complexity and size, many ancient ceremonial buildings, but its form is also meant to evoke the spaces of a modern city, hence the name. It is said that the idea for City came to Heizer after visiting ancient Luxor in Egypt, so much so that the first structure in the project to be completed, called Complex One, is based on the pyramid of Djoser, the great stepped pyramid found at the site of Saqqara.

The work is located in an isolated valley within the high desert Great Basin that has been grazed by cattle and sheep for at least a century, about 160 miles north of Las Vegas. Surrounded by primitive wilderness, City is close to the bases of several mountain ranges. The Heizer family has inhabited Nevada since the 19th century, but City ’s location was chosen in part by the artist because of its remoteness from civilization. Almost all elements within City are made from elemental materials such as clay, sand, and rock, harvested by minimally invasive means so that native plants and wildlife could remain undisturbed. In June 2015,City and the surrounding area, 704,000 acres in total, were proclaimed part of the Basin and Range National Monument to safeguard all this environment for the benefit of future generations.

City is owned by the Triple Aught Foundation (which is also responsible for managing the project), a nonprofit institution based in Nevada. Work on the project has been sustained over the past half-century by organizational and financial support from institutions across the country, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, Arkansas); Dia Art Foundation (New York); Glenstone Museum (Potomac, Maryland); Lannan Foundation (New Mexico); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Many private individuals have also contributed their time and money: among them, dealer Virginia Dwan, who has long supported the artist.

As of Sept. 2, therefore, the first visitors can begin to wander around Heizer’s city. Only short day trips for up to six visitors will be possible, only by advance reservation and only in favorable weather. City is on private property on rural land, and has no habitable structures. Visiting without a booked tour, they let the Triple Aught Foundation know, is therefore potentially dangerous and is strictly prohibited. Reservations for future visits can be requested by writing to info@tripleaughtfoundation.org.

Visitors will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis, and visits will end for the 2022 season on November 1. Prices are not very cheap: $150 adults, $100 students. Free (but reservations still required) for residents of Lincoln, Nye and White Pine counties, Nevada. Inside City there is no predefined route, lacking any signs pointing in a direction: it is made to be explored almost instinctively. A book about the City project is in preparation, edited by the artist in collaboration with Gagosian Gallery.

Michael Heizer is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century, known for producing large outdoor earthwork sculptures and for his work with rock, concrete and steel. Heizer began constructing City in 1970 in continuity with his earlier land art works, such as North and South (1967), or Double Negative (1969), perhaps his most famous intervention.

“Elements of an urban landscape,” says critic Dave Hickey in describing City, “seem to rise or fall from within the excavation.... As one approaches a viewpoint, Heizer’s cultural interventions open up the space. The streets, domes, and pits within the excavation are elegantly curbed in long, quiet Sumerian curves. They restore our sense of distance and scale, so the complexity of City is revealed as a graceful intervention in the desert ... composed and complete.”

Virginia Dwan, board member of the Triple Aught Foundation and renowned gallerist, said, “Michael Heizer is one of the greatest innovators of our time, and I still believe what I thought when Heizer founded City, that this work required to be built. It is extraordinary that he has completed one of the most important works of art of this century, decades in the making, and I was fortunate enough to witness this transformative sculptural intervention from the very beginning.”

Michael Govan, CDA member of the Triple Aught Foundation and director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, says, “Over the years I have sometimes compared Michael Heizer’s city to some of the most important ancient monuments and cities. But now I compare it only to itself. It is a work of art aware of our primal impulses to build and organize space, but it incorporates our modernity, our awareness and reflection on the subjectivity of our human experience of time and space, as well as the many histories of civilizations we have built. Working with Michael Heizer for more than 25 years to help him realize his City project has been one of the most important experiences of my life and work.”

A monumental sculpture in the Nevada desert: it is Michael Heizer's City. Begun in 1970, it can now be visited

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