Michael Heizer | Post Historic Screenprints

Durham Press proudly presents two new screenprint editions from Michael Heizer, each 46 inches square on Arches Aquarelle 356gsm Cold Press paper. Post Historic No.1 and Post Historic No. 2, which combine 22 and 33 individual screens, respectively, are available in editions of 40.

Post Historic No. 1 and Post Historic No. 2 act as reimaginations of artist Michael Heizer’s characteristic and pioneering Land Art sculptures. Inspired by ancient forms – stones, tools, and the architecture and planning of pre-Columbian sites – as well as Minimalist abstraction, the formal composition of the seemingly aged and immutable objects in these two prints contrasts the quick, graffiti-like marks that surround and cover them. Post Historic No. 1 and Post Historic No. 2 were completed after several trips to Heizer’s studios in Nevada, also home of his recently completed City, a monumental installation measuring 1.5 miles long that Heizer has been at work on since the 1970s. While City focuses on displacement of land at an awe-inspiring scale, these two editions emphasize the obsidian tools and boulders that both create and make up these large forms. 

While considerably smaller than Heizer’s City, these two screenprints still fill a wall with their large format scale full of aggressive and gestural marks. Scribbles and splatters of spray paint-like screenprint both obscure and highlight photorealistic renderings of these stone and obsidian tools that have long fascinated Heizer, both in shape and potential – a potential realized in many of his installation works. Tools that have been carved to fit in the palm of your hand have now been expanded to substantial, weighty forms; instead of focusing on the product of these tools, in Post Historic Screenprints Heizer has turned his attention to the strength of their expression.