Smithson, Robert

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was the pioneer of land and earthworks art. He was also a noted sculptor, painter, writer, and lecturer working primarily in New York City. Smithson's wife, Nancy Holt (1938-) was a noted sculptor and filmmaker and also worked as an earthworks artist.

Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Smithson expressed an early interest in art, enrolling in classes at the Brooklyn Museum School and the Art Student's League in New York while still attending high school. Smithson's early works were primarily paintings, drawings, and collages. In 1959, he exhibited his first solo show of paintings at the Artists' Gallery in New York and had his first solo international show in Rome with the Galleria George Lester in 1961.

During the early to mid-1960s, Smithson was perhaps better known as a writer and art critic, writing numerous essays and reviews for Arts Magazine and Artforum . He became affiliated with artists who were identified with the minimalist movement, such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Nancy Holt, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris and others. In 1963, Smithson married sculptor and filmmaker Nancy Holt and a year later started to create his first sculptural works. In 1966, Smithson joined the Dwan Gallery, whose owner Virginia Dwan was an enthusiastic supporter of his work.

Smithson's interest in land art began in the late 1960s while exploring industrial and quarry sites and observing the movement of earth and rocks. This resulted in a series of sculptures called "non-sites" consisting of earth and rocks collected from a specific site and installed in gallery space, often combined with photographs, maps, mirrors, or found materials. 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. Soon thereafter, he began creating his own large scale land art and earthworks.

From 1967 to 1973, Smithson's productivity was constant as he wrote, lectured, and participated in several solo and group shows a year, both at home and abroad. He explored narrative art as essay in "The Monuments of Passaic" and fully committed to his idea of visiting sites and using them as the basis for creating non-sites, Non-Site, Pine Barrens, (1968); incorporated and documented the use of mirrors at sites in Mirror Displacement, Cayuga Salt Mine Project (1968-1969); and created his first site-specific works through liquid pours of mud, asphalt, and concrete, including Asphalt Rundown (1969). In 1969, he also completed his first earth pour at Kent State University with his project Partially Buried Woodshed . Later that year, he created the sculptural artwork for which he is best known, Spiral Jetty (1969) on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. This was the first of his pieces to require the acquisition of land rights and earthmoving equipment, and would be followed two years later by Broken Circle and Spiral Hill in 1971.

On July 20, 1973, while surveying sites in Texas for the proposed Amarillo Ramp, Smithson died in a plane crash at the age of 35. Despite his early death, Smithson's writings and artwork had a major impact on many contemporary artists.

Nancy Holt began her career as a photographer and video artist. Today, Holt is most widely known for her large-scale environmental works, Sun Tunnels and Dark Star Park . Holt has also made a number of films and videos since the late 1960s, including Mono Lake (1968), East Coast, West Coast (1969), and Swamp (1971) in collaboration with her late husband Robert Smithson. Points of View: Clocktower (1974) features conversations between Lucy Lippard and Richard Serra, Liza Bear and Klaus Kertess, Carl Andre and Ruth Kligman and Bruce Brice and Tina Girouard. In 1978, she produced a film about her seminal work Sun Tunnels .

From the guide to the Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987, bulk 1952-1987, (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was a sculptor and lecturer. His wife, Nancy Holt, is a sculptor and filmmaker.

From the description of Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82962536

Sculptor and lecturer; b. 1938; d. 1973.

From the description of Robert Smithson interviews, 1972 July 14 - July 19 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81787113

American sculptor and lecturer who was born in 1938 and died in 1973. His wife, Nancy Holt, is a sculptor and filmaker.

From the description of Drawings, 1969-1970. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122443246

Smithson was a sculptor, painter, New York, N.Y. Born 1938. Died 1973.

From the description of Robert Smithson letters to George B. Lester, 1960-1963. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84170045

Sculptor, New York, N.Y; Born 1938, Died 1973. Tony Robbin, the interviewer is a writer, painter and sculptor.

From the description of Robert Smithson interview, 1968. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82429450

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was a sculptor and lecturer.

From the description of Oral history interview with Robert Smithson, 1972 July 14-19 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 495595100