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Description: Mirror-Travels: Robert Smithson and History
Index
PublisherYale University Press
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Index
Abstract expressionism, 13
Aesthetics, 4, 100, 137–38
Alan Gallery, New York City, 13
Ambidextrous Universe, The (Gardner), 52
American Museum of Natural History, 23, 96
Animals Without Backbones (Buchsbaum), 21, 23
Art
commodification of, 122
criticism, 7, 118–22, 123, 128–29
history, 141n4
history and, 122–23
instantaneous moment of creativity, 129
labor, 128
market, 122, 123
process, 123
production of, 122
as product/object, 122, 128
“Art and Objecthood” (Fried), 33, 34, 53, 144n54, 150n27
Art Deco modernism, 67–68
Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC), 112
Augustine, Saint, 56
Avant-garde, 18, 49
Ballard, J. G., 7, 107
Baroque, 29, 59
Bataille, Georges, 7, 9, 122
Beat experience and art, 15, 19, 28
Beckett, Samuel, 103
Bellamy, Richard, 13
Benjamin, Walter, 7, 8, 142nn14, 15
Binocular vision, 92, 93, 100, 101, 108, 116, 152n17
Blake, William, 16, 19–22, 23, 28, 55, 56, 143n25
Block universe, 55, 56, 70, 72, 146n36
Borges, Jorge Luis, 80, 101
Brancusi, Constantin, 128
Brooks, Van Wyck, 94
Buchsbaum, Ralph, 23
Bunn, Charles, 41, 42, 45, 53, 55
Buñuel, Luis, 31
Burroughs, William, 29
Cabot, Dr. Samuel, 92, 100, 152n15
Cage, John, 13
“Calm eye,” 154n39
Camouflage, 88–90
Caro, Anthony, 122
Carroll, Lewis, 28, 53
“Casting glances” concept, 72–75, 76, 79, 80–81
Catherwood, Frederick, 88–93, 96, 151n4
Works:
Idol and Altar at Copán, 104
Idol at Copan, 90
Portion of a Building, Las Monjas, Uxmal, 91
Stela at Copan, 89
Chaos theory, 137
Chesterton, G. K., 15, 16, 19, 23, 35, 143n12
on Blake, 21–22, 28
Clarke, Arthur C., 53
Coincidence, rule of, 47
Cole, Thomas, 96
Works:
Course of Empire, 94
The Course of Empire: Desolation, 95
Conceptual art, 1
“Concrete universal” concept, 137–38
Connoisseurship, 130
Consumerism and mass culture, 16, 18, 26, 28, 33, 118
Corman, Roger, 9
Cruger, John Church, 96
Crystal, Mark, 129, 156n19
Crystallography
screw dislocation in, 40, 41, 45, 130
symmetry in, 45–47, 69
See also Smithson, Robert: crystalline structures and abstractions
Crystals: Their Role in Nature and Science (Bunn), 41, 41, 42, 42, 45, 48, 52, 53, 55, 59, 135
Crystal World, The (Ballard), 107
Cubism, 16, 18
“Cultivated eye” concept, 79
De Kooning, Willem, 13
Deposition altarpiece (Pontormo), 36–38, 39
Deposition process, 39, 40, 41–44, 59
Derrida, Jacques, 49, 102, 109, 122, 137, 145n23, 149–50n27
Descartes, René, 75, 76, 100, 129
Descent from the Cross (Pontormo), 37
Desolation, 94, 96, 112
See also Smithson, Robert: Writings: “Iconography of Desolation, The”
De Vries, Jan Vredeman, 76, 149n23
Diachrony, 7, 8, 141n3
Dislocation, 42, 44
Double vision, 100, 101
Dubuffet, Jean, 13
Duchamp, Marcel, 16
Duke, Julia, 142n5
Dunne, J. W., 53, 54
Dwan, Virginia, 96, 118, 153n24
Eagleton, Terry, 137–38
Eckhardt, Meister, 7, 15
Ehrenzweig, Anton, 101–2
Eliot, T. S., 15, 16, 81, 101
Enantiomorphism, 40, 44–49, 51, 56, 63
deconstruction of the now and, 49–50
double vision and, 100, 101
as reversal or mirroring, 63
See also Smithson, Robert: enantiomorphism interests
Energy and society relationship, 108
entropic time concept, 44
See also Smithson, Robert: entropic worldview
Entropy, 8–9
“Entropy” (Pynchon), 32
Equilibrium concept, 32, 44, 56, 59, 70, 108, 137
sloth and, 91–92, 151–52n11
Eternal revelation, 4
Eternal stasis concept, 70
Eternal/Universal Vision concept, 23, 26, 28
Exhibitions
Artists Gallery solo show (1959), 13
Diane Brown Gallery (1985), 14
Galeria George Lester, Rome (1961), 13, 15, 25, 28–29
“New Work by New Artists,” 13
“Eye of Power” concept, 92
Flaubert, Gustave, 101
Flavin, Dan, 59
Foster, Hal, 138
Foucault, Michel, 92
Four-dimensional space, 47, 50–59, 67, 72, 123, 140nn27, 28
Fractals, 137
Francis, Saint, 50, 51
Fried, Michael, 19, 33–34, 49, 53, 79, 123, 144n54, 149–50n27
Fuller, Buckminster, 53, 147n42
Gardner, Martin, 52, 53, 146n34
Geometria et Perspectiva (Stoer), 76, 78
Geometry, 35, 50, 52, 54, 55
Gide, André, 101
Ginsberg, Allen, 13
Golden Spike Motel, 118, 121
Golden Spike National Historic Site, 1, 116, 119 (map), 120 (replica engines), 123, 128, 155–56n4
Golden Spike of the transcontinental railroad, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 115, 118, 123, 125, 136, 138, 139
centennial (1969), 116–18, 117, 138
ceremony (1869), 114, 118
1869 photograph of, 3, 114
as high-modern sculpture, 122
historical alchemy of, 122
The Last Spike, 115
legend, 116
Spiral Jetty and, 115
Gorgoni, Gianfranco, 129
Works:
Spiral Jetty, 1970, 126, 128, 131, 132, 133, 134
Great Salt Lake, 1, 6, 116, 125, 128
Greenberg, Clement, 13, 33, 49, 79, 123, 136, 149–50n27
aesthetics, 100
art criticism by, 118–22
Green Gallery, New York City, 13
Greenwich Village, 13, 66–67, 70–71
Grotesque, 29
Guatemala, in
Hamilton, Alexander, 64
Hegel, Georg, 137
Heidegger, Martin, 49, 146n25
Hinton, C. H., 54
Historical materialism, 5
Historical obscurity, 90
Historical transcendence, 34
Historic preservation movement, 66–67, 68, 70, 79
History as material residue/waste, 5, 26
Holt, Nancy, 25, 96, 111–12
Honduras, 6
Hulme, T. E., 15, 101
Husserl, Edmund, 49, 50, 76, 145–46n25
Hyperspace, 4, 52, 53, 54, 55, 123
Iconoscope, 31, 32, 44
Indifference, 102, 108, 112
fundamental memory of, 112
historical, 90, 94, 108, 151n2
of indigenous people of Yucatán Peninsula, 90–91, 94, 101
temporal, 110
Industrial tourism, 69
Infolding/interfolding concept, 101, 102, 107, 108, 109
Institutional critique, 4
Jammer, Max, 53
Jamnitzer, Wenzel, 79
Johns, Jasper, 28
Joyce, James, 128
Judd, Donald, 40, 59, 147n43
Kant, Immanuel, 47
Kaprow, Allan, 28, 147n1
Kerouac, Jack, 13, 15
Kierkegaard, Søren, 49
Kubler, George, 141n4, 149n25
Labor politics, 122
Lacan, Jacques, 155n2
Landmarks Preservation Commission, 66, 68
Lang, Fritz, 148n15
Latin America, 111–12
Leider, Philip, 112
Lester, George, 13, 14
See also Exhibitions: Galeria George Lester, Rome (1961); Smithson, Robert: letters to George Lester
Levinas, Emmanuel, 49
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 107–9
Lewis, Wyndham, 15, 16, 101
LeWitt, Sol, 53, 59
Lichtenstein, Roy, 13
Louis, Morris, 13
Lyotard, Jean-François, 122
Maelstrom concept, 138–39
“Magic Eye” stereographs, 88
Malevich, Kazimir, 54, 56, 146n42
Mandelbrot, Benoit, 137
Manifest Destiny, 122
Mannerism, 36, 38–39, 59, 76, 79, 144n4
Marxist critique of art, 123
Maya culture, 88, 94–96, 98, 109–10, 151n1
McLuhan, Marshall, 109–10
Medieval manuscript illuminations, 21, 23
Melville, Herman, 87
Memory, 7, 81
archaic, 107
fundamental, 103, 112
history and, 76
involuntary, 103
neutralization of, 80
nostalgia and, 80, 81
passive, 103
time and, 80
vision and, 79
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 49
Metaphysics, 50
Mexico, 109, 110–11
Microscopy, 22–23, 35, 54, 130
Minimalism, 1, 40, 56, 59
Modernism/modern art, 4, 6, 7, 28, 33, 118–22
Art Deco, 67–68
Morelli, Giovanni, 128–29, 130, 136
Morris, Robert, 53, 59
Museum of Modern Art, 28, 141n9
Mysticism, 7, 14, 15–18, 34, 39, 54, 55–56
Nabokov, Vladimir, 49, 137, 145n22
Naked Lunch (Burroughs), 29
National Historic Preservation Act, 5, 66
Nauman, Bruce, 75, 149n22
“Necker Reversals,” 53
Newman, Barnett, 13
Noland, Kenneth, 33
Non-laminar flows, 137
Nostalgia, 5, 80, 81, 118
Nude Descending a Staircase (Duchamp), 16
Oblivion, 80
Oldenburg, Claes, 13, 28, 147n1
Opticality, 8
Ouspensky, P. D., 54
Park Place Group, 53
Passaic, New Jersey, 6, 59
crystallization of, 72–79
eternal stasis/entropic passivity, 70–71, 148–49n19
histories of, 64–66, 79, 150n33
labor strikes, 66
Passaic River, 62, 64, 66
race relations in, 63, 66, 81, 82–85, 150n37
railroad tracks, 63, 75, 81–85
tours of, offered by Smithson, 60, 147n1
ultramoderne architecture, 66–69
Passaic project (Passaic, New Jersey), 72, 79, 85, 100
crystallization of perspective, 80–81, 97, 100
expedition as artistic method (tour), 60–61, 62, 64, 68–69, 81, 148–49n19
map, 64, 65
“monuments” (puddles, parking lots, etc.), 61–62, 64 81–85
nostalgia and forgetting in, 80
photographs as “stigmatic vistas,” 80
“ruins in reverse” concept, 69–71
as site-specific work, 62
“The Monuments of Passaic” travelogue and photographs, 4, 54, 60, 61, 62–64, 66, 70, 72, 80, 82–84, 112, 116, 139, 146n25
traditional monument forms, 75
Works (photographs):
Bridge Monument, 61, 66, 69, 70, 72, 80
concrete form, 76
crystalline grate on Bridge Monument, 70
cube monument, 62
fence, 73
The Fountain Monument, 61, 62
The Great Pipes Monument, 61
Monument with Pontoons: The Pumping Derrick, 61
parking lot, 82
road closed, 71
The Sand-Box Monument, 61, 64, 84, 84–85, 150n37
small fountain monument, 63, 150n37
square spirals, 68
traditional monument, 75
wooden sidewalks, 73
Perreault, John, 75
Perspective
camera as mechanism of, 72, 75–76, 149n20
cultural, 94
diminution of, 80
generative, 88
historical, 94
linear, 72, 75, 76, 79, 112
mechanistic, 100
temporal, 76–79, 149n25
visual, 76, 94
Perspective (de Vries), 77
Picturesque aesthetics, 4, 92
Poe, Edgar Allan, 1, 87, 138–39, 151n3
Pollock, Jackson, 18, 19, 21, 23, 26
Pontormo, Jacopo, 36–38, 39, 44, 59
Pop art, 13
Postcolonialism, 101
Postmodernism, 49, 69, 142n15
Poststructuralism, 5, 6, 7, 49, 149–50n27
Pound, Ezra, 15, 16
Prehistoric cultures, 109
Pre-Raphaelites, 18, 29
Pre-Renaissance art, 14
Primitive inertia concept, 109
Primitive timelessness concept, 108, 109
Primitivism, 109
Proust, Marcel, 80, 103
Pynchon, Thomas, 32
Race relations, 6, 63, 66, 81, 82–85, 150n37
Rauschenberg, Robert, 13, 28, 153n26
Recursive symmetry, 137
Reinhardt, Ad, 9
Renaissance art, 18, 36, 39, 59, 149n25
Repetition, 49, 141n13
Riegl, Alois, 67
Russell, Andrew J., 114, 116
Works
East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, 3, 114
Granite Cañon, Black Hills, 127
Santayana, George, 76
Savage Mind, The (Lévi-Strauss), 108
Savage mind concept, 107, 108, 109
Screw dislocation in crystallography, 40, 41, 45, 130
Secor surveying satellite, 55, 56
Semiotics, 4
Serra, Richard, 112
Sheeler, Charles, 148n15
Sloth, 38, 91–92, 151–52n11
“Slurbs,” 59
Smithson, Robert, 1, 4
abstraction and, 13, 39
action concept and philosophy, 9, 19, 26, 34, 80
body of work, 9
car imagery, 26, 28, 81, 143n35
Catholic faith, 14, 15, 55, 142n5
collage works, 1, 13, 14, 23, 26, 28, 53, 55, 72
color and light theories, 84, 102–3, 107
continuance as historical connection, 4–8, 10
critical reviews of, 6, 13, 14, 59
criticism of modernism, 6, 18–19, 34, 141n7
crystalline structures and abstractions, 4, 7, 9, 14, 32–33, 34, 35, 39–41, 44, 45, 55, 56, 68, 72–79, 139
deconstruction of binocular vision, 100, 116
deconstruction of the Now, 49–50
depositional model of time, 44, 59
despair in writings and works, 19, 23–28, 31
destruction of works, 14
disclosure concept and, 54
distortion in works, 14, 26–28
earthworks as diagram of time, 5–6
enantiomorphism interests, 45, 47, 50, 51, 56, 63, 69, 102, 116, 145n19
entropic worldview, 8–9, 32, 44–45, 59, 67, 70, 79, 84, 98, 101, 103, 108, 112, 137, 139
films, 1, 31–32, 35, 44
fourth dimension and, 50–59
Fried and, 33–34
Golden Spike and, 136, 138
Greenberg and, 33
historically complex sites, 4
historical reference and method, 1, 4–8
Hotel Palenque slide series, 98, 110, 111, 111
hyperspace philosophy, 53, 54, 55, 123
iconoclasm, 28–33
iconography, 4, 14, 15, 16, 26–28, 34, 38, 39
interviews, 7, 9, 40, 42, 103, 137
land art/earthworks, 4
landscape and, 4, 40, 59, 70–71, 72, 116, 123
letters to George Lester, 13, 15, 16, 18, 28, 31, 32
linearity of works, 6, 18–23, 26, 72, 112
literary criticism by, 7
literary influences on, 1, 7, 13, 15, 29, 32, 49, 53–54, 55, 76–79, 80, 81, 84, 87, 96, 101–2, 103, 107–9, 110, 111, 118, 128–29, 137, 138–39
mirror installations/displacements, 1, 4, 21, 44–59, 51, 82, 137
modernism and, 6
mysticism, 14, 15–18, 55
natural history interests, 21, 22–23, 143n31
in New York City, 13, 15, 18, 49, 67–69
order within disorder approach of, 137
perspective in works, 26–28, 47, 55, 79, 80, 100
philosophy of history, 1, 4–10, 23, 35, 40, 56, 63, 67, 68, 87, 111, 116, 130, 136, 138, 139
philosophy of language, 40
philosophy of politics, 112–13
philosophy of time/temporal experiments, 5, 14, 15–18, 18, 23, 29–31, 34, 39, 40, 49, 55, 59, 67, 103, 122, 123, 136
philosophy of vision, 23–28, 31, 40, 72–75, 76, 79, 80–81, 87, 100, 102, 103, 108
photography, 1, 7, 9, 35, 53, 79
polygonal wall structures, 39
postmodernism/antimodernism, 6, 7, 14–15, 33, 34, 141n7, 142n6, 144n54
production methods, 5
proportion theory, 19
reflection and refraction in works of, 28, 47–49, 51
religious paintings (“ikons”), 4, 9, 14, 18, 25, 34, 35, 39, 50–51, 56, 80, 81
in Rome, 29–31, 40
science fiction and, 32, 34, 49, 53
sculptures, 1, 35, 39, 72
sites of artistic production, 6, 9
skepticism, 28, 32–33, 34
spiral motifs, 41–44, 136, 137
spiritual crisis, 4, 13–14, 18
“stigmatic vistas” of, 50, 80, 115
stillness concept and, 34–35, 53
teardrop symbolism, 28
theory of history as “spiral wreckage,” 122
time-crystal model, 44, 55, 56, 63, 67
timelessness concept and, 9, 14, 18, 19, 25, 29–31, 32, 33, 34–39
time-motion paradigm and, 53–55
transcendentalism and, 8–10, 52–53
unobtainable present and, 49
urban projects, 71
use of geometric forms, 55
utopian stillness and, 63, 84–85
waste, decay, and residue depictions, 8, 18, 28, 29, 31, 66, 71
Works:
Alive in the Grave of Machines 26, 28, 27
Alogon installations, 53, 146–47n42
Asphalt Rundown, 81, 83
Blind Angel, 50
Chalk-Mirror Displacement, 45, 46
Christ in Limbo, 20, 21, 22, 23
Creeping Jesus, 16, 17, 19, 26
Cryosphere, 39
Enantiomorphic Chambers, 40, 47, 48, 51, 100
Fallen Christ, 23, 25
Feet of Christ, 50
Four-Sided Vortex, 39
Grave Mounds with Object, 146n27
Green Chimera with Stigmata, 50, 50
Gyrostasis, 38, 39
Island of Salt Crystals in Red Water, 136
Jesus Mocked, 23, 24
Man of Ashes, 22, 22, 79
Man of Sorrow 1, 50, 50
Man of Sorrow 2, 50, 50
Mirrored Ziggurat, 42, 43, 44–45
Mirror Strata series, 47
A Nonsite (Franklin, New Jersey), 61, 147n2
Nonsites series, 75, 147n2
Plan for a Museum Concerning the Spiral Jetty, 121, 136
Points on the Edge of a New Jersey Swamp project, 72, 74
Proposal for a Monument at Antarctica, 55, 58
Proposal for a Monument on the Red Sea, 55, 57, 72
Tears, 28, 30
“Ultramoderne” project, 67, 67–69, 71, 109, 148n14
Untitled, 38
Writings: 7, 49
Artforum magazine articles, 34, 53, 60, 62
in Arts Magazine, 67
“Crystal Land, The,” 40
“Entropy and the New Monuments” article, 59
essays, 40
“Iconography of Desolation, The,” 16, 17, 25, 28, 31, 32, 35
“Incantation” poem, 15
poetry, 1
“Pointless Vanishing Points,” 76, 100
“Quasi Infinities and the Waning of Space,” 54
religious, 9
“Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects, A,” 75, 122, 148n9
“Spiral Wreckage” essay, 44
“Towards the Development of an Air Terminal Site,” 40, 53, 54, 67
See also Exhibitions; Passaic project (Passaic, New Jersey); Spiral Jetty earthwork; Yucatán expedition and installations
Societies, “hot” and “cold,” 108, 109, 154–55n49
Solid diminution concept, 72
Space, theories of, 54, 55, 59
Spiral Jetty earthwork, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 42, 116
abyss and maelstrom imagery of, 138–39
aerial photographs of, 124,128, 129, 130, 131, 132
continuous deposition of salt crystals on, 125, 130, 131, 136–37, 138
documentation of construction, 125, 125
engagement with history, 118, 125
essay/narrative, 32, 35, 123–25, 129–30, 130, 136
film, 125, 130, 139
Golden Spike connection, 1, 115, 118, 125
landscape and ruins surrounding, 123–25, 128, 130
location, 115, 118
photographs of, 123, 129–30, 133, 134, 136
in realm of aesthetics, 137–38
Smithson’s wordplay “scaling” reference to, 136–37
as “spiral ear,” 128, 129, 130
theme of failure and, 125
treatment of time and history, 123, 125, 128, 129
Static states, 38, 39, 44, 56, 70, 108, 109
Stella, Frank, 13
Stephens, John Lloyd, 87–96, 100, 102, 103, 109, 112, 151nn3, 4
appropriation of artifacts from Yucatán, 96, 98, 113
expedition narratives, 87
“Stephens Stones,” 97
Stereoscopes, 100
Stigmata, 50, 80, 115
Stillness concept, 34–35, 53, 63, 84–85
Stoer, Lorenz, 79, 149n26
Story of the Wedding of the Rails, 118
Strabismus (“lazy eye”) affliction, 92–94, 100, 101, 102, 152nn15, 16
Structuralism, 7
Suburbia, 64
Symmetry, 19, 45–47, 49, 50–51, 52, 69, 137, 139
Thermodynamics, 7, 32, 108
Three-dimensional space, 47, 51, 72, 100, 123
“Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey,” 5
Transcontinental railroad, 1, 3, 6, 115, 116, 118, 122–23, 125
Chinese workers on, 116–18, 138
Tropical Cargo film, 35
Twain, Mark, 1
Unconscious seeing, 102
Underhill, Evelyn, 15, 55, 143n12
University of Utah lecture, 98, 110
Untitled (illustration of surgery for strabismus), 93
Urbanism, 66, 69
“Vegetable Glass of Nature”/Vegetative Eye concept, 21, 23, 26, 33
Verticality, 136
Video and cogito concepts, 100
Vision models, 93
Volpe, John, 116
Wells, H. G., 15, 53
Williams, William Carlos, 148n9
Wind, Edgar, 128–29, 130
Yard (Kaprow), 28, 29
Yucatán expedition and installations, 5, 96, 116
anti-architecture projects, 98
binocular vision model for, 100
cancellation of historical time and, 110–11
collapse of vision in, 98–100, 103, 107
crystallization of difference in, 107–9
decomposition in, 100
as enantiomorphic travel, 101
horizon theme, 111
low-level perception in, 101–2
mirror installations/displacements, 97–98, 98, 99, 100–102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111
passivism of, 112
primordial considerations in, 102, 107
recognition of difference in, 102–3
social and political climate for, 111, 139
as undoing of Stephens’s work, 100, 102, 103
Works:
Hypothetical Continent of Gondwanaland, 98
“Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan” Artforum project, 1, 4, 87, 101, 102, 108, 110, 112
Overturned Rocks, 98
Upside-Down Tree installations, 98, 102
Yucatán Peninsula, 1, 5, 150–51n1
Copán ruins, 88, 90, 91
indifference of light in, 102–3
Palenque, 90, 98, 110, 111
Stephens’s excursion to, 87–96, 100
strabismus (“lazy eye”)
affliction in natives, 92–94, 100, 101
temporal inertia in, 91–92
Index
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