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Randolph Sims: Paintings and Land Arts Projects

CAE1606

Summary Note

The archive Randolph Sims: Paintings and Land Arts Projects traces the artist’s career as he created land arts projects, ephemeral drawings on sand with water, and other two-dimensional bodies of work. Materials include original drawings and paintings, correspondence, exhibition ephemera, slides, negatives, and photographs.

Biographical Note

Randolph Sims was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1943. He studied commercial art and then fine art at the San Francisco Art Institute for two-and-a-half years in 1963-64, where he met Michael Heizer. Sims moved to New York City in 1967, worked as a loft painter with Heizer, then as a commercial artist. He moved to upstate New York in 1970, took an extended trip to Europe and Turkey, then returned to live in Connecticut. In 1980, at the invitation of his cousin Sue Clark, he moved to a ranch in California’s Plumas County, and eventually settled in Nevada City where he worked intermittently as a carpenter.

Scope and Content

The archive materials trace Sims’s work from the time he met Michael Heizer until he stopped making art in 1991. Both artists in 1963-64 were Bay Area Figurative painters under the influence of David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Richard Diebenkorn—and both would, within two years, start painting hard-edge shaped abstract canvases. While Heizer’s paintings were angular and geometrically shaped, Sims were biomorphic and wave-like in form. Both men moved to New York City, Heizer in 1966 and Sims shortly thereafter. Heizer was making a living painting lofts and Sims worked with him, the men spending evenings at Max’s Kansas City where Sims met other artists such as Robert Smithson. Sims accompanied Heizer as an unpaid assistant to the Mojave Desert in 1968 to help him work on land art projects at Coyote Dry Lake, where he made his first land art when Heizer lent him the use of a backhoe and operator. At the same time, Sims shaped paintings had enlarged past his capacity to work indoors, and he continued making negative sculptures outdoors, then ephemeral drawings on rock and on sand with water until 1991. Sims seldom had funds to complete his more ambitious land art works and was only able to make preliminary sketches and then temporary maquettes in the landscape.

Materials include an interview conducted in 2016, original drawings and paintings, correspondence, exhibition ephemera, slides, negatives, and photographs.

Drawing by Michael Heizer of Vya Project in 1968, and photomontage by Sims of Heizer installing his work at the Whitney in 1968. Six “surf drawings” done from 1969-1970 in Turkey, and eight from Baja California done in 1991; ten “drawings for shaped canvases (1970), thirty “land art project drawings” in ink, pencil, and grease stick on paper, and photocopies from 1968; photographs of land art projects on Coyote Dry Lake in 1968; photographs of land drawings done in Connecticut in 1969; “water drawings” done in Canyonlands, Utah in 1986. Also included are exhibition reviews and correspondence.

Arrangement

This archive is arranged in six series. The first series provides overall artist information. The second series contains materials generated from Sims’ relationship with Michael Heizer. The remaining four series are organized by project types, which are further organized chronologically by start date.
  • Series 1: Artist Information
  • Series 2: Working with Michael Heizer
  • Series 3: Land Art
  • Series 4: Shaped Canvas
  • Series 5: Surf Paintings
  • Series 6: Water Drawings

Inclusive Dates

1967-2019

Bulk Dates

1967-1970

Quantity / Extent

1.5 cubic feet

Language

English

Related Archive Collections

Related Publications

Baker, Kenneth. The Lightning Field. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.

Beacham, Jon, and Michael Heizer. Coyotes, Silver Slippers, Pumas, Mesquite ... and Word List Extracted & Edited: Selective List of Uses for Welding Electrodes: Michael Heizer. Tivoli, NY: The Brother In Elysium, 2015.

Beardsley, John. Earthworks and Beyond. New York, N.Y.: Abbeville Press, 1998.

Beardsley, John. Probing the Earth: Contemporary Land Projects. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977.

Camfield, William A. Michael Heizer: 45°, 90°, 180°: A Sculpture for Rice University. Houston, TX: Rice University, Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, 1985.

Celant, Germano. Michael Heizer. Milan, Italy: Fondazione Prada, 1997.

Christie's. Minimal and Conceptual Art from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company: Tuesday, May 5, 1987. New York NY: Christies, 1987.

Durham Press. Michael Heizer, Tom Slaughter, Ray Charles White, Scott Kilgour, John Giorno, Robert Harms, Daniel Villeneuve, Beatriz Milhazes. Durham, Pa: Durham Press, 1996.

Felix, Zdenek. Michael Heizer. Essen, Germany, Otterlo, Netherlands: Museum Folkwang; Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, 1979

Fox, William L., The Void, The Grid, & The Sign: Traversing the Great Basin. Salt Lake City, Utah: The University of Utah Press, 2000.

Gorgoni, Gianfranco. The New Avant-Garde: Issues for the Art of the Seventies. New York, NY: Praeger, 1972.

Hedger, Michael Albert. Larger than Life: Size, Scale and the Imaginary in the Work of Land Artists Michael Heizer, Walter De Maria and Dennis Oppenheim. Sidney, N.S.W.: University of New South Wales. Art & Design, 2014.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer. Innsbruck, Austria: Galerie im Taxispalais, 1977.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer. London, England: Waddington Galleries, 1990.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: Actual Size. Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1971.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: Double Negative. New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA: Rizzoli; Museum of Contemporary Art, 1991.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: New Sculpture. New York, NY: M. Knoedler & Co., 1988.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: New Sculpture. New York, NY: M. Knoedler & Co., 1988.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: New Sculpture. Tokyo, Japan: Akira Ikeda Gallery, 1988.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: Photographic and Actual Works. Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1971.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer—Dragged Mass Geometric. New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1985.

Kimmelman, Michael. The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2005.

Levitated Mass: The Story of Michael Heizer’s Monolithic Sculpture. Directed by Doug Pray. New York, NY: First Run Features, 2014.

Lewis, David P. The Size of City: Michael Heizer’s Masterpiece as Architecture. Cardiff, Wales: Dissertation, Cardiff University, 2010.

Lippard, Lucy. 4,492,040. Vancouver, Canada: New Documents, 2012.

Lippard, Lucy. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1997.

McGill, Douglas C. Michael Heizer: Effigy Tumuli: The Reemergence of Ancient Mound Building. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1990.

Vander Weg, Kara. Ed., Michael Heizer: Alters. New York, NY: Gagosian Gallery, 2016.

Container Listing by Series:

CAE1606/1 Series 1: Artist Information, 1969-2016

Series 1 includes an interview from 2016, an artwork image listing, concept sketches, and exhibition ephemera from three exhibitions.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 1-1 Artist Information, 1985-2016
    • 1-2 Artwork Listing and Concept Sketches, 1969-1991
    • 1-3 557,087 Exhibition, Seattle Washington 1969, 1969-2013
    • 1-4 D’Angelo Gallery Exhibition, 1987
    • 1-5 Bub Enterprises Exhibition, 1997

Additional Materials

  • CAE Box 126 Boxed Objects

    • 1-1#31 Artist’s Hat, Stetson Bowler Hat, Not dated

CAE1606/2 Series 2: Working with Michael Heizer, 1968

Series 2 includes materials from Sims’ work with Michael Heizer. Materials include a photomontage by Sims of Heizer installing his work at the Whitney in 1968 and a drawing by Michael Heizer of Skeleto Sink, the 1968 Las Vegas Vya Project.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 2-1 Whitney Sculpture Annual, 1968
    • 2-2 Skeleto Sink, 1968

Additional Materials

  • CAE Flat File F9 Oversized Items

    • 2-1#2 Heizer, Mercer St. Studio, NYC, Whitney Piece 1968, Photograph, not dated
    • 2-2#1a Skeleto Sink, 1968

  • CAE S-Box 9

    • 2-1#3 Whitney Sculpture Annual, Contact Sheet, 1968

CAE1606/3 Series 3: Land Art, 1967-2019

Series 3 contains materials related to Sims’ Land Art work. Materials include negatives, contact sheets, slides, photographs, a postcard, original drawings, and copies of the original drawings.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 3-1 Excavation Drawings, New York City, 1967
    • 3-2 Hypothetical Crotch Series, 1968-1969
    • 3-3 Miscellaneous Land Art Drawings, 1968-1969
    • 3-4 Slot Drawings, 1968-1969
    • 3-5 Strata Wash Series, 1968-1969
    • 3-6 9 Contour Lines on Rocks, Thimble Islands, Connecticut, 1969
    • 3-7 Spur, Excavation, Coyote Dry Lake, Mojave Desert, California and Nevada, 1969
    • 3-8 Fixed Line Drawings, Stoney Creek, Connecticut, 1969
    • 3-9 Lead Piece, Stoney Creek, Connecticut, 1969
    • 3-10 Untitled (Canvas Installation), Sonoran Desert, California, 1969
    • 3-11 Untitled (Wet Lime Drawing), Cargo Muchacho Mountains, California, 1969
    • 3-12 Urine Depression, Stoney Creek, Connecticut, 1969
    • 3-13 Walking Line, Stoney Creek, Connecticut, 1969
    • 3-14 Removed and Replaced Rock, Saline Valley, California, 12/1983
    • 3-15 Double Hot Weave and IKB Levitated, Homage, Black Rock Desert, 1984-1985
    • 3-16 Removed and Replaced Rock, The Racetrack, Death Valley, 1984-1985

Additional Materials

  • CAE Flat File F9 Oversized Items

    • 3-1#2a Untitled, 1967
    • 3-1#3a Untitled, 1967
    • 3-1#4a Untitled, 1967
    • 3-1#5a Untitled, 1967
    • 3-3#5a Untitled Land Art Drawing, 1969
    • 3-4#3a Unfinished Drawing, 1969
    • 3-4#4a Parallel, Perpendicular Slots, Gallery Space Sculpture, Drawing, 1968
    • 3-5#49a Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#50a Strata Wash: Heavy Gauge Aluminum, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#51a Wash Line, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#57 Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#58 Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1968
    • 3-5#59a Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1969

  • CAE Flat File F18 Oversized Items

    • 3-2#82a Hypothetical Crotch (Study), Drawing, 1968
    • 3-2#82b Hypothetical Crotch (Study), Photocopy 1968
    • 3-2#83a Untitled from the Hypothetical Crotch Series, Drawing, 1968
    • 3-2#83b Untitled from the Hypothetical Crotch Series, Photocopy, 1968
    • 3-2#84a Untitled from the Hypothetical Crotch Series, Drawing, 1968
    • 3-2#84b Untitled from the Hypothetical Crotch Series, Photocopy, 1968
    • 3-2#85 Untitled from the Hypothetical Crotch Series, Drawing, 1968
    • 3-3#7 Untitled Land Art Drawing, 1969
    • 3-3#8 Untitled (Heavy Gauge Steel), Drawing 1968
    • 3-3#9 Untitled Land Art Drawing, 1968
    • 3-3#10 Untitled (Placement of Hypothetical Landscape), 1968
    • 3-3#11 Untitled Land Art Drawing, 1968
    • 3-3#12 As Above, So Below, Drawing, 1967-68
    • 3-5#46a Untitled from the Strata Wash Series, 1968
    • 3-5#49b Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Photocopy, 1969
    • 3-5#52a Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#53 Strata Line, Exposed Concrete, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#54 Sub Strata Drainage Pattern, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#55 Cross Section for "Sub Strata" Line, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#56 Sub Strata line, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-6#1a 9 Contour Lines on Rocks, Thimble Islands, Conn., Drawing, 1969
    • 3-8#42a Fixed Line, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-8#43a Fixed Line Series 1, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-8#44 Fixed Line Series 2, Drawing, 1969

  • CAE S-Box 9

    • 3-2#81 Desert W #1, 1968
    • 3-5#44 Desert W #2, 1969
    • 3-5#47 Untitled (Strata Wash), 1969
    • 3-9#34 Lead Piece Photographs, Black & White photographs mounted on board, 1970

  • CAE S-Box 34

    • 3-17#1 Attn: Bill Fox, Randolph Sims’ Proposal for Land Sculpture Museum Campus, Remote Location, Reno, Las Vegas, 19567-68-69-70, Proposal, 2019

  • CAE Standalone

    • 3-12#1 Urine Depression, 1969

  • Collection Storage

    • 3-3#6a Untitled Land Art Drawing, 1968
    • 3-4#1a Garden Slot, Drawing,1969
    • 3-4#2a Perpendicular Slot, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-5#48a Untitled from the Sub-Strata Wash Series, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-8#45 One - Line on Surface, Drawing, 1969
    • 3-8#46 Sporadic 360º Line: Lime Line on Surface, Drawing, 1969

CAE1606/4 Series 4: Shaped Canvas, 1967

Series 4 contains materials related to Sims’ Shaped Canvas work. Materials include negatives, original drawings, and copies of the original drawings.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 4-1 Studies for Shaped Canvas, 1967

Additional Materials

  • CAE Flat File F18 Oversized Items

    • 4-1#11a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#12a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#13a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#14a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#15a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#16a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#17a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#18a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#19a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#20a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967
    • 4-1#21a Study for Shaped Canvas, 1967

CAE1606/5 Series 5: Surf Paintings, 1970-2004

Series 5 contains materials related to Sims’ Surf Paintings. Materials include slides, original drawings, and copies of the original drawings.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 5-1 Drawings for Surf Paintings, 1970
    • 5-2 Surf Painting, Turkey, 1970-2004
    • 5-3 Surf and Sand Painting, Baja Mexico, 1970-1991

Additional Materials

  • CAE Flat File F18 Oversized Items

    • 5-1#24 Drawing for Surf Painting, January 1970
    • 5-1#25a Red, Brown, Blue, Surf Painting, January 1970
    • 5-1#26a Drawing for Surf Painting, January 1970
    • 5-1#27a Drawing for Surf Painting, January 1970
    • 5-1#28a Drawing for Surf Painting, January 1970
    • 5-1#29a Drawing for Surf Painting, January 1970

  • CAE Textile Rack

    • 5-2#1a Kuşadasi, Turkey #1, 1970
    • 5-2#2a Kuşadasi, Turkey #2, 1970
    • 5-2#3a Kuşadasi, Turkey #3, 1970
    • 5-2#4a İskenderun, Turkey, 1970
    • 5-3#6 Baja, Mexico, 1970
    • 5-3#7 Baja, Mexico, 1970

CAE1606/6 Series 6: Water Drawings, 1986-1991

Series 6 contains materials related to Sims’ Water Drawings. Materials include negatives, contact sheets, and printed photographs.

  • CAE Box 142

    • 6-1 Baja California, Mexico & Ramona, California, 1986
    • 6-2 Borrego Springs, California, 1986
    • 6-3 Canyonlands, Utah, 1986
    • 6-4 Hovenweep National Monument, Utah, 1986
    • 6-5 Joshua Tree & Alabama Hills, California, 1986
    • 6-6 Baja California, Mexico, 3/1991