"I'm mainly concerned with physical properties, with density, volume, mass, and space. For instance, I find an eighteen-foot-square granite boulder. That's mass-It's already a piece of sculpture. But as an artist it's not enough for me to say that, so I mess with it. I defile....if you're a naturalist you'd say I defiled it, otherwise you'd say I responded in my own manner."
Michael Heizer was born in Berkeley in 1944. Given the typical attitude about Berkeley, California during the 1960's it is not surprising one of Heizer's philosophies was, "Art had to be radical." Educated as a painter at the San Francisco Art Institute, by the late 1960's he decided to pack his bags for the desert. Rejecting the European style, Heizer began to create "environmental art." Heizer became friends with other "environmental artists" as well. After about ten pieces in the desert, he was introduced to Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, and Carl Andre.
The majority of Heizer's work was closed to the public, or very inaccessible. But in 1968, Heizer received finical aid from art collector Robert Scull. Despite once saying, "The position of art as malleable barter exchange item falters as the cumulative economic structure gluts. The museums and collections are stuffed, the floors are sagging, but the real spaces still exist," Heizer began his gallery career. One critic commented, "earth art, with very few expectations, not only does not improve upon its natural environment, it destroys it."
Perhaps his most famous piece, is titled Double Negative. Commissioned by Virginia Dwan in 1969, the installation was deeded to the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1985. This was the first museum to include a permanently sited land sculpture in its permanent collection. The project consisted of two cuts each 30 feet wide by 50 feet deep in the surface of two facing mesa's. The project is approximately 1,500 feet in length and displaced over 240,000 tons of earth.
Although most of his work is only temporary, Heizer began creating permanent sculptures. In 1968, he lined trenches with steel to ensure their existence. Beginning in 1972, Heizer took four years to complete Complex One/City which was commissioned by the Dawn Gallery. This optical illusion in the desert reflects the Pyramid of the Moon near Mexico City. Heizer's father was an archeologist and often took Michael on digs when he was younger. By the mid 1970's, Heizer began creating more accessible, permanent sculptures. In 1976 Heizer created, Adjacent, Against, Upon, 1%, for Seattle. It is the combination of natural and architectonic elements -- Massive granite slabs quarried in the Cascade Mountains, set up on concrete piliths.
Heizer clearly defined and perhaps founded the Earth Movement. His influence on artists like Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, and Carl Andre is quite obvious. The use of natural mass, rejecting the galleries clearly gives his pieces monumental immortality, whether they still exist or not.