See our Privacy Policy for more information about cookies. Paintings from 1959 to 1962 explored "mythical religious archetypes" and were also based on Dante's Divine Comedysuch as the paint… Biography. In 1999, Nancy Holt, fellow land artist and Smithson’s wife, and the Robert Smithson Estate gifted Spiral Jetty to the Dia Art Foundation, which is now responsible for the work, though that future is uncertain. Cava dei Selce, Rome, Italy. In 1973, he died in an aircraft accident when he was surveying the site for another Earthwork in Texas. In September 1968, Smithson published the essay "A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects" in Artforum that promoted the work of the first wave of land art artists, and in 1969 he began producing land art pieces to further explore concepts gained from his readings of William S. Burroughs, J.G. He produced drawings and collage works that incorporated images from natural history, science fiction films, classical art, religious iconography, and pornography including "homoerotic clippings from beefcake magazines". Working with unconventional materials including soil, rocks, disused industrial sites, and language, the artist explored the metaphorical qualities inherent in geological formations and the process of entropy. Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and early on lived mostly in Rutherford. Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. The Legacy of a Pioneering Land Art Intervention in Utah. The painter, sculptor, theorist, filmmaker, and photographer Robert Smithson helped pioneer the Earthwork Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, which took as its subject the artistic reordering of the American landscape in its many varied forms. “The strata of the Earth is a jumbled museum,” he once mused. Smithson preferred to work with ruined or exhausted sites © Holt/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation, licensed by VAGA, New York. The work has since been demolished, and only concrete remains in the grass. This resulted in the series of 'non-sites' in which earth and rocks collected from a specific area are installed in the gallery as sculptures, often combined with mirrors or glass. Smithson did not see entropy as a disadvantage; he saw it as a form of transformation of society and culture, which is shown in his artwork like his non-site pieces. He eventually joined the Dwan Gallery, whose owner Virginia Dwan was an enthusiastic supporter of his work. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1500 (if unwound) x 15 foot spiral of basalt, sand, and soil, ©Holt-Smithson Foundation Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris He said that in the ultimate future the universe will burn out into an all encompassing sameness. Robert Smithson, American sculptor and writer associated with the Land Art movement. Robert Smithson, an American artist and writer active in the 1960s and early ’70s, is perhaps best known for his so-called “earthworks.” Smithson died tragically in a plane crash in 1973 at the age of thirty-five while surveying the west Texas landscape as the site for a new earthwork, Amarillo Ramp. In 1970, he produced the Earthwork, or Land art, for which he is best known, Spiral Jetty, a remarkable coil of rock composed in the colored waters of the shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Earthwork. Land Art, also called Earthworks, is an interaction and study of the natural elements and manmade art.3 One of the most well known and originators of Earthworks is Robert Smithson. Non-sites is the title Robert Smithson gave to a group of geologically and geographically based works he began in 1968. Artworks See all 8 artworks › Chalk-Mirror Displacement, 1969 Robert Smithson; Study for Earthwork Proposal, 1969 Robert Smithson; Study for the Sculpture Glass Strata with Mulch and Soil, 1969 Robert Smithson; Discontinuous Aggregates, 1966 Robert Smithson; Trailer Partially Covered with Asphalt, 1970 Torn Photograph from the 2nd Stop (Rubble)..., 1970, Double Nonsite, California and Nevada, 1968–1969, RING OF SULFUR ON FLAT PLAIN, HOUSTON..., 1972, Torn Photograph from the Second Stop..., 1970. artnet and our partners use cookies to provide features on our sites and applications to improve your online experience, including for analysis of site usage, traffic measurement, and for advertising and content management. Robert Smithson . The work of Robert Smithson comes tightly wrapped in some ­unforgiving artistic concepts. He primarily identified as a painter during this time, and his early exhibited artworks had a wide range of influences, including science fiction, Catholic art and Pop art. He studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York from 1955 to 1956 and then briefly at the Brooklyn Museum School. Ballard, and George Kubler. Working with unconventional materials including soil, rocks, disused industrial sites, and language, the artist explored the metaphorical qualities inherent in geological formations and the process of entropy. Robert Smithson is the first comprehensive American retrospective of the complex and highly influential career of artist Robert Smithson (1938–73). A pivotal figure in the evolution of post-war sculpture, Robert Smithson created iconic Land art that radically changed prevailing ideas about the making and viewing of art. He loaded a dump truck with hot asphalt, and then had the truck discharge the contents down the sides of a quarry, so that the mixture cooled and hardened as it fell, ultimately seeming to fuse with the sides of the quarry. 1971. Robert Smithson designed and directed the construction of his iconic work the Spiral Jetty in April 1970. Robert Smithson (American, 1938–1973) was a painter and sculptor best known for his mature Land Art pieces, such as Spiral Jetty (1970). All rights reserved. Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist who used photography in relation to sculpture and land art. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970 (Great Salt Lake, Utah) A Monument to Paradox and Transience A loud abrasive buzzing bellows from the nightstand and I raise my head, only to be blinded by the red light emanating from the small—in size, not volume—machine against a backdrop of pure blackness. 4:00 A.M. Oy. Robert Smithson. Smithson (1938-73) came of age in the 1960s when a flurry of knotty movements, ideas and adherences were gaining purchase – minimalism, land art, psychogeography, site-specific art, video art and more. Born: January 2, 1938; Passaic, New Jersey, United States ; Died: July 20, 1973; Texas, United States ; Nationality: American; Art Movement: Environmental Art (Land art) Genre: installation; Field: painting, sculpture, installation, collage; Influenced by: Joseph Beuys; Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smithson Earthwork. 1969. Partially Buried Woodshed. One of the most renowned works of land art, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty embodies considerations that share affinities with what will later be found in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson's Land Art Masterwork Robert Smithson (American, 1938–1973), Spiral Jetty, 1970, Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah, black basalt rock, salt crystals, earth, and water, 1,500 ft. long and approximately 15 ft. wide. Some of Smithson's later writings recovered 18th- and 19th-century conceptions of landscape architecture which influenced the pivotal earthwork explorations which characterized his later work. The Jetty is a site-specific work, meant to interact with changing conditions of the surrounding water, land, and atmosphere. Smithson made the work at the invitation of the Sonsbeek buiten de perken (Beyond the Pale) exhibition. He primarily identified himself as a painter during this time, but after a three-year rest from the art world, Smithson emerged in 1964 as a proponent of the emerging minimalist movement. This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). Crystalline structures and the concept of entropy became of particular interest to him, and informed a number of sculptures completed during this period, including Alogon 2. in Oswego Lake Quadrangle (1954-55) (1967) Robert Smithson Mirror with Rock Salt (Salt Mine and Museum Proposal) 1968 Robert Smithson Fossil Quarry Mirror (Outdoor and Indoor Proposal) 1968 Robert Smithson Corner Mirror with Coral 1969 His early exhibited artworks were collage works influenced by "homoerotic drawings and clippings from beefcake magazines", science fiction, and early Pop Art. Smithson created many inspirational pieces, which have lasted throughout the years, not only through land art but also with drawings, sculptures, films and writings. Smithson created Asphalt Rundown - the first monumental Earthwork that he made outside, to be seen outside - in a quarry on the outskirts of Rome. Photographed by Gianfranco Gorgoni, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smithson. It is located southeast of the Liquid Crystal Institute building on the Kent State University main campus. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Robert Smithson (1938 - 1973) is an artist who recalibrated the possibilities of art. Partially Buried Woodshed is a work of land art created by Robert Smithson. The artwork is noted as one of Smithson’s best. The full text of the article is here →, Smithson at the site of Spiral Jetty (1970), Great Salt Lake, Utah, April 1970. Robert Smithson in Texas is the first examination of five projects Smithson proposed throughout the state of Texas. Instead he began to use glass sheet and neon lighting tubes to explore visual refraction and mirroring, in particular the sculpture Enantiomorphic Chambers. Smithson grew up in New Jersey, and moved to New York in the 1950s to study at the Art Students’ League and the Brooklyn Museum School. By continuing to use our sites and applications, you agree to our use of cookies. Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. In Smithson’s eyes entropy was the second law of thermodynamics, which exploits the range of energy by telling us that energy is easier lost than obtained. His new work abandoned the preoccupation with the body that had been common in his earlier work. Robert Smithson Ruin of Map of Hipparchus (100 B.C.) Emmen, The Netherlands. His large-scale sculptures, called Earthworks, engaged directly with nature and were created by moving and constructing with vast amounts of soil and rocks. Smithson used the idea of entropy to explore ideas of decay and renewal, chaos and order, non-sites and earthworks, trying to find equilibrium between these opposites. ©2020 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. As a writer, Smithson was interested in applying mathematical impersonality to art that he outlined in essays and reviews for Arts Magazine and Artforum and for a period was better known as a critic than as an artist. Get the latest news on the events, trends, and people that shape the global art market with our daily newsletter. His monumental earthen sculptures such as Spiral Jetty (1970), were inspired by the Minimalist work of his contemporaries, as well as geology, science fiction, and the concept of entropy. Towards the end of the film Robert Smithson made about the construction of “Spiral Jetty”, an earthwork at Rozel Point, Utah, we see the artist running its 1,500ft length. In Rutherford, William Carlos Williams was Smithson's pediatrician. For over fifty years Robert Smithson's work and ideas have influenced artists and thinkers, building the ground from which contemporary art has grown. When Smithson was nine his family moved to the Allwood section of Clifton. His ideas on entropy also branched out into culture, “the urban sprawl and the infinite number of housing developments of the post war boom have contributed to the architect of entropy”. A pivotal figure in the evolution of post-war sculpture, Robert Smithson created iconic Land art that radically changed prevailing ideas about the making and viewing of art. In June 1971, the American artist Robert Smithson (1938–1973) completed the land art project Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in a sand quarry in Emmen. It was created at Kent State University in January 1970. In 1967 Smithson began exploring industrial areas around New Jersey and was fascinated by the sight of dump trucks excavating tons of earth and rock that he described in an essay as the equivalents of the monuments of antiquity. Robert Smithson was a seminal American artist and writer known for pioneering the Land Art movement. 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