Rhyolite’s Neighbor: The Goldwell Open Air Museum… The Desert Series

July 5, 2014January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 24 Comments

A tall, naked, pink lady is visible from the Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite. Known as the The Venus of Nevada, this 1992 work by Hugo Heyrman is part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

A tall, pink lady is visible from the Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite. Known as the Venus of Nevada, this 1992 work by Hugo Heyrman is part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

The first time we drove into Rhyolite, I noticed a tall, naked lady with blond hair next door to the town. And no, I hadn’t consumed any peyote or other hallucinogenic drugs normally found in deserts and used by shamans to enter places that might be inhabited by tall, naked, pink ladies. I was gazing down at the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a truly unique art museum in the world of art museums.

Goldwell was started in 1984 by the Dutch artist Albert Szukalski as a way to display ghostly figures he created by wrapping live models in wet plaster. Soon, other Dutch artists joined him in his efforts to create a sculpture museum in the desert. Today, a Nevada non-profit organization cares for the museum and supports on-site artistic endeavors.

I’ve blogged about the museum before and I will undoubtedly blog about it again. Why? I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Albert Szukalski’s work, The Last Supper, was the first sculpture created for the Goldwell Open Air Museum. The mountains and clouds provide a dramatic backdrop for the sculpture.

Albert Szukalski's Last Supper sculpture at the Goldwell Open Air Museum just east of Death Valley National Park.

Using Davinci’s fresco of the Last Supper as a model, Szukalski wanted a desert setting for his sculpture. Here, the ghostly figures are seen from behind.

Lady Desert and the Last Supper sculptures at the Goldwell Open Air Museum located east of Death Valley.

Lady Desert, the Venus of Nevada, is located behind the Last Supper. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Looking up at Lady Desert at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Nevada.

Hugo Heyrman used cinder blocks in his creation of the Venus of Nevada to represent the pixellated, technological world we live in. I found this perspective interesting. Peggy just shook her head.

Ghost Rider Sculpture by Albert Szukalski at the Goldwell Open Air Museum east of Death Valley.

A local resident of the nearby town of Beatty donated his bike and his body for this sculpture by Albert Szukalski. He served as the model by allowing wet, plaster infused burlap to be draped over his body.The sculpture is appropriately named Ghost Rider.

Every lonely desert prospector needs a penguin for company, right? Wait, isn’t that a donkey? The artist Fred Bervoets decided on a penguin for his tribute to Shorty Harris at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Shorty was a legendary prospector who worked the Rhyolite area.

Couch by Sophie Siegmann at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Nevada.

This couch by Sofie Siegmann is titled “Sit Here.”

the Sit Here couch by Sophie Siegmann at the Goldwell Open Air Museum near Beatty, Nevada.

So Peggy did. The buildings in the background are located in the ghost town of Rhyolite.

Detail on couch sculpture at Goldwell Open Air Museum.

The back of the couch featured this face. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Statue of Icara by Dre Peters at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

Dre Peeters named his hand carved statue Icara, a female equivalent of Icarus, the legendary Greek boy who flew too close to the sun.

Wagon wheel at the Goldwell Open Air Museum near Beatty, Nevada.

An old wagon was located at the base of the Icara, so naturally I had to take a photo of its wheel. It makes a fitting end for this blog about an art museum located next to a ghost town.

NEXT BLOG: Off to the well know California ghost town of Bodie.

Wild and Weird Nevada… On the Road

March 4, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 5 Comments

Three of the ghostly figures in Albert Szukalski’s Last Supper at the Goldwell Open Air Museum near the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada.

Peggy and I are wandering through Nevada celebrating my birthday so I decided to re-blog an earlier story I did. We had stopped off to check out the ghost town of Rhyolite on our way into Death Valley from the small Nevada town of Beatty.

I was looking around at abandoned mines and contemplating the lonely life of prospectors when I spotted a 30-foot tall naked blond. She caught my attention. Totally by chance, we had stumbled on the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

A 30 foot tall naked blond created by Dr. Hugo Heyrman was my introduction to the Goldwell Open Air Museum on the border of Death Valley National Park.

I couldn’t resist a close up of Blondie. Dr. Heyrman calls his pixellated woman “Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada.”

Another view of the lady displaying her bubble butt.

The museum had its inception in 1984 when the Belgian artist Albert Szukalski wrapped a number of Beatty residents in wet plaster as models for a ghostly rendition of the Last Supper.

Another view of the Last Supper by Albert Szukalski at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. The dark, cloudy skies add drama.

I once bicycled through Death Valley as part of a 10,000 mile solo bike trip I made around North America. I can empathize with this guy.

Szukalski’s work inspired other well-known Belgian artists. Dr. Hugo Heyrman added the giant naked blond. Dre Peeter carved a female version of the Greek Icarus who flew too close to the sun with wax wings. Fred Bervoets created a metallic sculpture of a gold miner and threw in a penguin for good measure.

Dre Peeter’s carved wood female Icarus flies through the sky on the edge of Death Valley.

It’s understandable that Belgian artist Fred Verboets would create a sculpture of a prospector but what’s with his penguin companion? Verboets explains that’s what he felt like in the desert.

The Swiss/California artist Sofie Siegmann added a sumptuous ceramic couch and titled it “Sit Here.”

Sofie Siegmann’s brightly colored ceramic couch.

Another view of the couch. Long abandoned miners’ shacks in Rhyolite are in the distance.

The Goldwell Museum is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Admittance is free. A large, red barn-like building provides a studio for resident artists.

What’s the wild west without an old cowboy boot. This one was affixed to a telephone pole sculpture that served as a desert lost and found. I flipped it around right side up. You can almost sense it walking.

I even found my own little work of art in an old Rhyolite dump near the Goldwell Open Air Museum. To avoid being sacrilegious I call it the Last Dinner.

Any Old West museum… art or otherwise, has to have a wagon wheel…. and indeed we found one at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

NEXT BLOG: More on Nevada including ferocious bears, UFOs and ladies of the evening.

Rhyolite, Death Valley: A Ghostly Town… The National Park Series

April 13, 2012January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 1 Comment

A ghost sign for Rhyolite, Nevada. Look closely and you will see ghostly letters of the town's name imposed over the name of a long forgotten casino.

The wind was cold with the whispers of forgotten ghosts. We put on our Jackets to fight the chill; Bone found a horseshoe for good luck. We had made a detour to visit the old Ghost Town of Rhyolite on the way into Death Valley National Park from the small town of Beatty in Nevada.

The Peripatetic Bone, who was originally part of a horse just above the hoof, tries on a horseshoe for good luck.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1904. A boomtown sprang out of the desolate desert. Soon there was a school, a bank and even an opera house. The sound of “batter up” could be heard on weekend days and arias on weekend nights. Women flowed in from San Francisco to accommodate the town’s red light district.

Can you hear the children playing?

The town bank.

There was even an ice cream parlor and a house made from 50,000 beer and liquor bottles, which says something about the quantity of liquor consumed in town.

A house built with 50,000 bottles of beer and booze: light, insulation and a doozy of a hangover.

In 1907, electricity came to Rhyolite. It was the same year a financial crisis announced the beginning of the end for the town. Mines started to close, banks failed, and the newspaper went out of business. The lights were shut off in 1916. The boom was over.

A few skeletons of buildings and the bottle house are all that remain today. If you are in the neighborhood be sure to stop by. The ghosts will appreciate your visit. There is also a fascinating sculpture garden located next to Rhyolite that I will blog about next in my National Park/Death Valley series.