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Spiral Jetty

Spiral Jetty

Artist/Maker (American, 1938–1973)
Artist/Maker (Italian, 1941–2019)
Date1970
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Credit LineEllen H. Johnson Bequest
Object number1998.7.133
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Estate of Robert Smithson / Visual Artists and Galleries Association (VAGA), New York, NYMore Information
Smithson's monumental site-specific earthwork, Spiral Jetty (1970), is located on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Using black basalt rocks from the site, he created a coil fifteen hundred feet long that extends into the translucent red water. Smithson was fascinated with the rugged setting: "I like landscapes that suggest prehistory...It is interesting to take on the persona of a geological agent and actually become part of that process rather than overcome it." Using drawings, maps, diagrams, photographs, and material samples, Smithson built a complex dialogue between the actual site of his earthworks and its means of representation in a museum or gallery context.
Exhibition History
The Living Object: The Art Collection of Ellen H. Johnson
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (March 6, 1992 - June 14, 1992 )
Hybrid Images: The Photography of Sculpture, 1860 to 1990
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 6, 2012 - December 23, 2012 )
Time Well Spent: Art and Temporality
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 26, 2016 - December 23, 2016 )
The Body is the Map: Approaches to Land in the Americas after 1960
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 22, 2019 - June 23, 2019 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator. Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information about this object? Please contact us.