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Goldwell Museum
click the photo to see the photo gallery
The Goldwell Open Air Museum is a highly unusual yet wonderfully hip open-air art gallery set in the middle of the Nevada desert near the old ghost town of Rhyolite. Begun in 1984 by a group of Belgian artists, including a man named Albert Szukalski, they wanted to create artwork that would fit into the empty, tough landscape around it.
One of the most famous pieces is "The Last Supper," by Szukalski: life-sized ghostly figures in a line like the people in Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting. Szukalski did this by draping real people with plaster-drenched cloth and removing them to leave these ghostly, floating forms. With the passage of time, wind, and weather adding to their ghostly appearance, they appear even more like spirits rising out of the desert.
One of the more striking pieces is "Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada," a large, colorful statue that appears to be made from giant pixels, as if it were the creation of a 3D video game character. It is a statue of a woman standing tall in the middle of the desert, showing a mixture of ancient myth with modern technology. Bright colors against the dull brown and tan of the desert floor give it a very striking quality to it.
Then there is this other one, "Ghost Rider" by Szukalski, with this ghostly figure riding a bicycle. Plain, but it just so perfectly captures the loneliness and mystery of the area. The rider has seemed to be stuck in time, much like everything else in this forgotten part of the desert.
The cool thing about the Goldwell Museum: It's just out in the open-there are no walls, no fences. It's just there in the middle of nowhere, sort of meshing with the desert. You can just walk right up to the sculptures and view them up close with the ghost town of Rhyolite and the vast Mojave Desert all around you.
Rhyolite was a mining boomtown in the early 1900s, but with the draining of the gold, it quickly collapsed and people abandoned the town. Today, the remains of this town, with surreal art from the museum, make for quite an interesting combination of history and creativity slowly taken back into the desert.
Admission is free, and visitors can wander freely among the sculptures. Goldwell also offers special events, workshops, and artist residencies to keep the place alive with new ideas. It's not the sort of place that one can stumble upon; rather, it is a place one has to make certain to seek out. For those making it there, though, it's an unforgettable experience wherein modern art and the quiet mystery of the desert come together.
Sculptures that form the Museum's exhibits were created, in 1984, outside Rhyolite, Nevada, a ghost town off the road to Death Valley, California, by Belgian artists.
In the beginning, the Museum began with a sculpture by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski titled "The Last Supper" - an interpretation of Christ and his disciples set against the expansive Amargosa Valley.
Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" inspired Szukalski to create life-size ghost figures by wrapping live models in fabric soaked in wet plaster. As the plaster set, the model slipped out, leaving the rigid shroud behind. To make the work weatherproof, Szukalski coated it with fiberglass.
Three other Belgian artists who chose to create in relative obscurity near Death Valley have since expanded the site.
Goldwell is still sought out by artists worldwide decades later, having heard of it. The Goldwell landscape continues to captivate artists seeking adventure in their art-making.
Goldwell Museum
Rhyolite
Bullfrog
Beatty
