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Moving Big Rocks: The Casazza Family and Michael Heizer

IAE2510

Summary Note

Earl Casazza’s first work with Michael Heizer was moving three large granite boulders from Spooner Summit in 1969 for Displaced/Replaced Mass, located near Silver Springs. This began a long working and familial relationship between the Casazza family and Michael Heizer.

Biographical Note

Earl and Wanda Casazza were friends first with the anthropologist, Robert F. Heizer, and then with his son, the artist Michael Heizer. Earl (1921-2012) had a log-hauling business in the 1950s, clearing the forest in the Lake Tahoe Basin for the Heavenly Valley Ski Area and working on the first major widening of the Mt. Rose Highway. He soon started the Casazza Trucking Company, which by 1996 was the largest transporter of heavy equipment in Nevada. The company was also the major transporter for the U. S. Government taking supplies to the Nevada Test Site.

Scope and Content

Earl Casazza’s first work with Michael Heizer was moving three large granite boulders from Spooner Summit in 1969 for Displaced/Replaced Mass, transporting them downhill to three trenches dug into a micro playa near Silver Springs. This began a long working and familial relationship between the Casazza family and Michael Heizer. Displaced/Replaced Mass can be considered a precursor both to Levitated Mass (2012) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Negative Megalith #5 at DIA Beacon.

Materials include correspondence, photographs, printed ephemera, and press materials.

Arrangement

Folders are arranged by subject matter. Folder 1 contains personal correspondence, folders 2-4 contain materials about specific projects, and folder 5 contains exhibition and press materials.

Inclusive Dates

1969-2012

Bulk Dates

1996-2012

Quantity / Extent

.25 cubic feet

Language

English

Related Archive Collections

Related Publications

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

Fox, Willam L. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments. New York, NY: The Monacelli Press, 2019.

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

Hedger, Michael. 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. Actual Size: Detroit Institute of Arts, March 25 to April 25, 1971. Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1971.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer / Dragged Mass Geometric: Whitney Museum of American Art, June 27-September 1, 1985. New York, N.Y.: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1985.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer, Sculpture in Reverse. Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984.

Heizer, Michael. Michael Heizer: Photographic and Actual Works: Detroit Institute of Arts, February 23-April 4, 1971. Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1971.

Levitated Mass: The Story of Michael Heizer's Monolithic Sculpture. Directed by Doug Pray. New York, N.Y.: First Run Features, 2014. DVD.

Troublemakers. Produced by James Crump. New York, N.Y.: First Run Features, 2015. DVD

Container Listing:

  • ARCH-FILE 138-1

    • Folder 1 Correspondence, 1994 – 2012
    • Folder 2 Perforated Object (1996), 1996
    • Folder 3 Negative Megalith (1998), 1998
    • Folder 4 Levitated Mass (2012), 2009 – 2012
    • Folder 5 Press and Exhibition Materials, 1969 – 2012

Additional Materials

    Archive Flat File F10 Oversized Items

    • 5#2 Michael Heizer: Actual Size (Exhibited at LACMA, July 17, 2012 – February 24, 2013), Photograph on metal, 2012