“City” megasculpture by Michael Heizer (2022) After 50 Years, Michael Heizer’s ‘City’ mega sculpture is available to see in the Nevada Desert. Stretching a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, City is reminiscent of ancient ruins and ceremonial structures in its scope and intricacy. In appearance, though, its sharp concrete angles and perfectly groomed paths lend it a modern sensibility. It is considered one of the biggest artworks in the world. Heizer, 77, began constructing City in a remote Nevada desert in 1970. At the time, the young artist was “the toast of downtown New York,” per the New York Times’ Michael Kimmelman. Though Heizer initially funded the project himself, notable art institutions and collectors have chipped in over the last half-century. In 1998, supporters of City formed the Triple Aught Foundation, a nonprofit that oversees the project and has built a nearly $30 million endowment for it. “You’re meant to suffer its distances, its depressions and swells, and hear the crunch of gravel — to give yourself over to the peace and quiet, which itself takes on a sculptural presence. You’re meant to adapt to the subtle shifts in a desaturated palette of beiges, grays and dusky reds, and to notice the virtuosity of slender concrete curbs drawing lines in space that snake the length of several football fields. “City” substitutes the usual notion of relative scale in art for sheer size. “Masterpiece” is a loaded, dated term, but at the very least it implies something memorably singular, and that’s “City.” - Michael Kimmelman