You can take the Land artist out of Nevada but you can’t take the desert out of Michael Heizer, sadly.
The 81-year-old artist’s health has suffered after years spent carving his monumental City in a valley 100 miles north of the Nevada Test Site, taking a toll on his lungs and joints—and he doesn’t expect many more trips back.
Now based in New York in an apartment overlooking Central Park, he last saw his desert masterwork in 2023, he tells The Times in a rare interview.
In the ultimate act of downsizing, Heizer declared: “I’m divesting myself of my ownership, of my property, of my artwork, of my equipment. I’m giving it over to the public trust. I keep nothing.”
For decades, City was off-limits to all but a few, such as LACMA director Michael Govan, who helped raise the millions of dollars needed to complete the vast project. “This is a different time,” Heizer said and has recently allowed Vogue to do a photo shoot there with Timothée Chalamet in Tom Ford-designed glamping gear.
The artist recently told his ranch manager that he didn’t need to sweep up after every visitor anymore. “I told Shane to knock it off,” adding “I don’t know if it needs to be that perfect. It needs to be real.”
Meanwhile, his latest show at Gagosian, Negative Sculpture, is on view at its West 21st Street location until March 28.
