Detail, Surd Deposit

Robert SmithsonWW-1970-070720

1970·Graphite on ivory wove paper·60.9 × 48.4 cm (24 × 19 1/16 in.)

<p>Robert Smithson was interested in the natural environment as an alternative site to the interior, decontextualized space of commercial galleries and museums. He produced this earthwork study as a document of one moment in the continual process of environmental flux. The drawing depicts a detail view of a wall-like cinder-block structure collapsing under the force of a concrete flow as it runs over a precipice. The appearance of the disintegrating edifice imbues the event with a catastrophic quality, conveying Smithson’s perception of entropy as a primeval or elementary component of the natural landscape.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1970
Medium: Graphite on ivory wove paper
Dimensions: 60.9 × 48.4 cm (24 × 19 1/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Robert Smithson

Artist

Robert Smithson

Sculpture

Seminal American artist Robert Smithson was born in 1938 in Passaic, New Jersey. Most widely known for his sculpture work, namely that which was associated with the Land Art movement, Smithson was also an influential writer. Smithson took several classes at the Art Students League of New York, as well as the Brooklyn Museum School, before serving in the US Army Reserves between 1956 and 1957 – after which he relocated permanently to New York. By the late 1950s, Smithson was fully immersed in his art practice, creating paintings, drawings and collages, ultimately culminating in his first solo show at the Artists Gallery in 1959.

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