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Dennis Oppenheim (American, 1938–2011). Wishing the Mountains Madness, 1977. One of three locations. Star units 4 x 4 ft. each. Area covered: four acres. Location: Missoula, Montana. Color and black-and-white photography, hand-stamped topographic map, text. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York. Gift of the Dennis Oppenheim Estate.
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Dennis Oppenheim (American, 1938–2011). Wishing the Mountains Madness, 1977. One of three locations. Star units 4 x 4 ft. each. Area covered: four acres. Location: Missoula, Montana. Color and black-and-white photography, hand-stamped topographic map, text. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York. Gift of the Dennis Oppenheim Estate.
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Aerial view, Wishing the Mountains Madness, Missoula, 1977 © Dennis Oppenheim Estate.
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Dennis Oppenheim with star unit, Wishing the Mountains Madness, Missoula, 1977 © Dennis Oppenheim Estate.
A conceptual artist who worked in sculptural installation, performance, photography, and film, Dennis Oppenheim became best known for his outdoor sculptures, known as “land art” or “earthworks,” created through interventions into urban and natural environments.
Oppenheim first executed Wishing the Mountains Madness in 1977 as part of a visiting artist workshop at the University of Montana. The original work consisted of a random distribution of fifty four-foot-wide plywood stars—some painted white, others pale shades of red or blue—on a grassy, two-acre hillside. While nodding to the nation’s bicentennial of the previous year, the work suggests a cosmic upheaval, bringing stars down to the earth. The title refers to what the artist felt was a jarring difference between the “very beautiful and serene” natural landscape of Montana and the diversity and energy of New York City in the late 1970s—a kind of creative “madness” he felt was missing from the bucolic lifestyle of the region.
Because of the temporary nature and remote location of Wishing the Mountains Madness, Oppenheim documented it by combining aerial photography with maps of the area. Installed in the Lobby, the documentation accompanies the restaging of Oppenheim’s original project in the Parrish’s Meadow.
“For the second iteration of Wishing the Mountains Madness, the Dennis Oppenheim Estate is thrilled to be part of the commemoration of PARRISH USA250 and the Declaration Independence’s stated rights of Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness,” says Amy Oppenheim. “The community is asked to join the re-enactment on Community Day, June 14, which is also Flag Day, by freely placing sculptures that reference the current fifty-star flag across the Museum’s Meadow. Taken from the orderly nine rows of the flag and scattered across the Meadow, the fifty acrylic stars celebrate the expanse of the sky above earth, freedom in general, and freedom of expression—values and aspirations embedded in the spirit of the nation.”
Community participation at Community Day: Savor the Summer on June 14 will begin at 12 PM and is first come, first serve, upon signing up at the Visitor Experience desk.
Exhibition Support
Dennis Oppenheim: Wishing the Mountains Madness 1977 / 2026 is generously supported by the Dennis Oppenheim Estate.
The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton Union Free School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.
