Robert Z. Hawkins Gallery | Floor 3
This exhibition features more than 50 large-format photographs by the renowned Italian photographer Gianfranco Gorgoni (1941-2019), who is best known as the premier documentarian of Land Art in America. After meeting the legendary New York gallery owner Leo Castelli in 1969, Gorgoni was introduced to artists including Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude—a veritable Who’s Who of artists in New York City and Europe.
He first became known for making portraits of these individuals, but it was not long before he was invited by Heizer, Smithson, and De Maria to travel to the American West, where they were making some of the most iconic Earthworks of the twentieth century. Gorgoni was the first photographer to collaborate with these artists, and his images often serve as the definitive photographic record of their groundbreaking projects.
In 2016, the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art acquired Gorgoni’s archive, containing more than 2,000 images documenting Land Art. The images offer a unique and unparalleled record of how these artists’ iconic projects were created.
Gianfranco Gorgoni: Land Art Photographs will include Gorgoni’s photographs of works by Christo & Jean-Claude, Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, Ugo Rondinone, Charles Ross, Richard Serra, and Robert Smithson. The photographs will become part of the Carol Franc Buck Altered Landscape Photography Collection at the Nevada Museum of Art.
About the Book
The first career-spanning book of the work of Gianfranco Gorgoni, whose iconic photographs established Land Art as one of the major movements of the twentieth century.
Essays by Ann M. Wolfe, Germano Celant, and William L. Fox
Hardcover, 256 pages, published by Monacelli Press and the Nevada Museum of Art
Major Sponsors
Carol Franc Buck Foundation
The Cashman Foundation
Kim Sinatra + Family
Sponsors
Barbara and Tad Danz
Kathryn A. Hall and Laurel Trust Company
Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller
Linda and Alvaro Pascotto
Many of the photographs in this exhibition were purchased with a bequest from Nancy L. Peppin.
