Robert Smithson
American, 1938-1973
Detail, Surd Deposit
INV-7311
Robert Smithson
American, 1938-19731970
Detail, Surd Deposit
Robert Smithson American, 1938-1973 →graphitedrawings (visual works)
Date
1970
Medium
Graphite on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
60.9 × 48.4 cm (24 × 19 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Virginia Dwan
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.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
