Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty, 1970
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970), 2019. © Holt/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Victoria Sambunaris
Overview
Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) is a site-specific sculpture that is located at Rozel Point on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Made of black basalt rocks, salt crystals, earth, and water, Spiral Jetty is a 1,500-foot-long coil, measuring approximately 15 feet wide, that stretches into the lake. The fractured rocky landscape and changing water levels of the Great Salt Lake appealed to Smithson’s interest in entropy, where the forces of nature can change the work at any moment in time.
As stewards of Spiral Jetty, Dia is committed to recording changes to the work over time through photographic documentation. Since 2012, a geospatial aerial photographer has documented Spiral Jetty once or twice annually in the Spring and/or Fall.
Photographic and video material of Spiral Jetty is copyright protected. For rights and reproduction requests, contact rights@diaart.org.
Artwork Details
- Artist
- Robert Smithson
- Medium
- Black basalt rock, salt crystals, earth, and water
- Reference number
- 1999.014
- Title
- Spiral Jetty
- Dimensions
- 18000 x 180 in. (45720.0 x 457.2 cm) approximately
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Year
- 1970
- Credit line
- Dia Art Foundation
- Location
- Great Salt Lake, Utah
Artist
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1938. He died in Amarillo, Texas, in 1973.
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Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty
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