A Brief History Of Seven Magic Mountains

Part of the magic of art is surprise, running across what we didn’t expect, the juxtaposition of object and setting that challenge our perceptions. And it’s one of the most alluring aspects of Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains, an art installation outside Las Vegas.

A septet of towering, crayon-colored boulders in the midst of the desert, it’s somehow whimsical and spiritual at the same time.

Created by New York’s Art Production Fund and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Seven Magic Mountains was four years and slightly over $3 million in the making. The work’s location half an hour outside of Las Vegas draws both locals and tourists outside of the city limits to appreciate not just art, but nature.

Seven Magic Mountains is one of the largest land-based art installations to be put up in decades. It’s tied to previous landscape art pieces through its location near the Jean Dry Lake Bed, where Jean Tinguely and Michael Heizer created sculptures. The Swiss-born Ugo Rondinone works in a variety of mediums, from acrylic on canvas to paper and wood with plexiglass, and his pieces range in scale from sculptures that would fit on a bookshelf to the 35-foot cairns of Seven Magic Mountains.

The installation is a combination of rough stone and brilliant color

Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains was originally slated to be taken down in May 2018. However, the piece has proven to be exceptionally popular—getting about 1,000 visitors a day—and the Nevada Museum of Art has announced that it will remain on view at least through until the end of the year.

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Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

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