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Lot 16W
Michael Heizer(American, born 1944)Sandblasted Etched Glass Window, 1974
15 May 2019, 17:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$87,575 inc. premium
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Michael Heizer (American, born 1944)
Sandblasted Etched Glass Window, 1974
etched glass
The Work: 83 x 107 x 1/8 in.
210.8 x 271.8 x 0.3 cm.
With Display Frame: 86 1/2 x 109 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.
219.7 x 278.1 x 57.2 cm.
etched glass
The Work: 83 x 107 x 1/8 in.
210.8 x 271.8 x 0.3 cm.
With Display Frame: 86 1/2 x 109 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.
219.7 x 278.1 x 57.2 cm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Los Angeles (acquired from the above circa 1975)
Private Collection, California
Sale: Bonhams, Los Angeles, Made in California: Contemporary Art, 21 May 2012, Lot 85
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Los Angeles, Ace Gallery, Michael Heizer Windows, 5 February-16 March 1974
Literature
Germano Celant, Michael Heizer, Milan 1997, pp. 300-301, illustrated in color
One of the greatest exponents of Land Art, Michael Heizer's career has been marked by monumental excavations and site-specific constructions. His best-known works: Double Negative, City and Levitating Mass are herculean in their efforts to explore relationships of positive and negative space, and the effects of form and scale.
Born in 1944 and the son of a renowned archeologist, Heizer first came to New York City in 1965, to paint. Quickly finding himself within the artistic milieu of Max's Kansas City, the artist became friends with Walter De Maria who ultimately introduced him to Virginia Dwan, the influential gallerist and patron. With Dwan's support, Heizer decamped to the Nevada desert and from 1969 to 1970 he excavated 240,000 tons of earth to form Double Negative, two trenches cut into the eastern edge of the Mormon Mesa. In 1972 he broke ground on City, a massive series of complexes inspired by the ancient urban centers of Central and South America. Shortly after beginning City, Heizer produced the present work, Sandblasted Etched Glass Windows, 1974, for a show at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. Conceived to be used as a window in a domestic setting, this work is part of a series of glass works that explore this concept. The work is a departure from the monumental, a rare work in his practice on a relatively domestic scale, yet he continues to work with rough, industrial materials outside the limits of traditional artistic production.
Since his inclusion in Virginia Dwan's influential Earth Works exhibition in 1968, Heizer has exhibited in the Whitney Museum painting annual, documenta 6, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Fondazione Prada in Milan, among many others. Heizer's Levitating Mass, 2012, can currently be found at the entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, and he also has work in the permanent collections of Dia:Beacon, New York and the Menil Collection, Houston.
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