Ghosts Don't Need Pedals

by Joe Schofield

Title

Ghosts Don't Need Pedals

Artist

Joe Schofield

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

What better place to find a ghost than a ghost town? This art piece, as well as the entourage from the Last Supper can be seen in the ghost town of Rhyolite, near the outskirts of Death Valley. A ghostly white sculpture stands behind a weathered vintage bicycle on a wooden platform. The backdrop features a barren desert landscape under a clear blue sky.

Albert Szukalski came to the Nevada desert in 1984 to create what is perhaps the most unique piece of his career. Originally designed to endure a mere two years, “The Last Supper” sculpture has not only stood the test of time, but has lived on to become the “genesis” piece of the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

Albert was attracted to the Mojave Desert for many reasons, not the least of which was the Mojave’s resemblance to the deserts of the Middle East. To construct a modern day representation of Christ’s Last Supper, especially so close to Death Valley (where he originally wanted it sited), is eerily appropriate. Working essentially from Leonardo Da Vinci’s fresco of the Last Supper within the desert environment, Szukalski succeeded in blending the two disparate elements into a unified whole.

Maintaining the staging of the figures in Leonardo’s work and placing it in the American Southwest allowed the artist to meld Western Artistic tradition with the vast landscape of the New World. Albert Szukalski followed up “The Last Supper” with two other pieces at the site, “Ghost Rider” in 1984 and “Desert Flower” in 1989. “Desert Flower” was destroyed in a windstorm in 2007.

For more:
https://www.goldwellmuseum.org/death-valley-project-booklet-from-1984

Uploaded

November 4th, 2024

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