Michael Heizer (Installation View), via Gagosian

Spanning the breadth and depth of the artist’s work in both sculpture and land art, Gagosian’s Paris in Le Bourget is currently presenting a body of work by Michael Heizer that moves from 1968 to the present.  Over fifty years, Heizer has redefined the very idea of sculpture in his explorations of size, mass, and process. His earth-moving constructions, paintings, and drawings explore the dynamics of positive and negative space.  With this show, the magnitude and nuance of his work is allowed to breathe at scale, presenting a body of works that underscore his evolution and incorporation of increasingly complex methodologies into his practice. (more…)

Mother Jones takes a closer look at Basin and Range, the home of Michael Heizer’s City, and the center of a recently ignited political debate over the allocation of lands under government protection.  President Obama signed an executive order protecting Basin and Range earlier this month, earning angry outcries from Republicans.  “I don’t think expanding the narrowing use of public lands is appropriate,” Jeb Bush retorted following the bill.  (more…)

Michael Heizer‘s “Levitated Mass” opens to the public at LACMA. The 340-ton boulder suspends just above a channel, allowing visitors to walk under the sculpture and see it from multiple angles. The reclusive artist poses the question: “When do you get to see the bottoms of sculptures?”

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View of frame to have picture taken with boulder in Bixby Knolls on March 7, 2012. Images on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

On Saturday, March 10 at approximately 3:00 am the 340-ton granite megalith that will be part of Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass reached its final destination at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Traveling for eleven days in the dead of night through Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties, the rock arrived at LACMA to a crowd of a thousand onlookers. The megalith’s final resting place is atop a 465-foot long slot carved into the earth. Viewers will be able to walk down into the slot and underneath the rock, experiencing scale in a way that harkens back to ancient times when massive structures such as Stonehenge, Easter Island, or the Great Pyramids were constructed.

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View of boulder in Exposition Park area on March 9, 2012

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‪‬Artist Michael Heizer’s 340-ton boulder is the centerpiece for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Levitated Mass” exhibition. It traveled through Ontario California on Thursday in a special truck for the second stop of its 105-mile journey from Riverside to LACMA. Street signs and obstacles were moved for its journey. [AO Newslink]

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‪Artist Michael Heizer to move 340-ton boulder for permanent installation at LACMA; a $10 million, 9 night journey from quarry through Los Angeles [AO Newslink]

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