Robert Smithson
American·1938–1973
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Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was an American artist who became the leading figure of the Land Art (or Earthworks) movement. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, he began as a painter before turning to sculpture and site-specific installations in the late 1960s. His writings on art, entropy, and landscape were as influential as his artworks.
Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970), a 1,500-foot coil of black basalt rock, earth, and salt crystals extending into the Great Salt Lake in Utah, is the most iconic work of Land Art. It periodically appears and disappears beneath the lake's fluctuating water levels. He died at 35 in a plane crash while surveying a site for a new earthwork in Texas.
Sculptures by Robert Smithson
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About Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty (1970) is a 1,500-foot coil of black basalt rock extending into Utah's Great Salt Lake. It's the most famous work of Land Art and periodically submerges beneath the lake's rising water levels.
Spiral Jetty is on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, Utah (owned by the Dia Art Foundation). His non-sites and sculptures are at Dia:Beacon and MoMA in New York.
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