The death of Robert Smithson in 1973 robbed postwar American art of an unusually creative practitioner and thinker. Smithson's pioneering earthworks of the 1960s and 1970s anticipated contemporary concerns with environmentalism and the site-specific character of artistic production. His interrogation of authorship, the linear historiography of high modernism, and the limitations of the museum prefigures key themes in postmodern criticism while underscoring the uniqueness of Smithson's own work as an artist, filmmaker, and writer. This study of Smithson's career addresses the full range of the artist's virtuosity. Ranging from Smithson's best known works such as "Spiral Jetty" and "Partially Buried Woodshed" to his photographs, films, and theoretical readings and writings, this book analyzes Smithson's art in relation to the legacy of American art of the 1960s and central philosophical themes in its contemporary reception.
- ISBN10 0520920430
- ISBN13 9780520920439
- Publish Date 3 October 1995
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 May 2021
- Imprint University of California Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 284
- Language English