Skip to content
installation view of several artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of four artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of two artworks
installation view of two artworks
striped artworks surrounded by winged figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Striped center], 1964.

Pencil and crayon on paper

30 x 21 in.
76.2 x 53.3 cm


RS12613
 

 

neon grid in the center surrounded by figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Pencil writes “less work for mother”/telephone cord spells “hello”/ man on orange blob], 1963

Pencil, crayon, spray paint and marker on paper

30 x 22 in.  
76.2 x 55.9 cm

 

RS12619

Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

grid composed of neon shapes surrounded by nude figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Green vertical square maze and woman with stockings],1964 
Mixed media with stencil on paper
30 x 22 in.
76.2 x 55.9 cm
 
RS12642
abstract coral colored drawing surrounded by nude figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Pink linoleum center], 1964

Collage and color pencil on paper

30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm


RS12605
 

 

 

image of a Greek statue drawn over with red and yellow lines, flanked by light red thunderbolts, surrounded by miscellaneous figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Venus with lightning bolts], 1964

Pencil and crayon with collage on paper

30 x 22 in.
76.2 x 55.9 cm


RS12622
 

 

black and white image of a man holding a gun to someone's head surrounded by figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Fighting dinosaurs, lactating sphynx with Indian headdress], 1963
Pencil and crayon with collage on paper
24 x 18 in
1.0 x 45.7 cm
 
RS12665
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

round image of a bust draws over with pink, yellow, red, and blue squiggly lines

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Man in colonial American dress and Indian], 1963

Mixed media with collage on paper

30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm


RS12603
 

 

image of Greek statue drawn over with red, green, yellow, and black lines surrounded by lightning bolts and nude figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Classical head], 1963

Mixed media with collage on paper
30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm

RS12604
 
machine connected to a woman's breast

ROBERT SMITHSON

The Machine Taking a Wife, 1964
Plexiglas, metal, acrylic paint, photographs and rectifier tube on wood
40 x 11 x 4 in
101.6 x 27.9 x 10.2 cm

RS14628
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

machine connected to a woman's breasts

ROBERT SMITHSON

Honeymoon Machine,1964
Plexiglas, machine parts, black and white photographs on wood
30 x 14 x 5 in
76.2 x 35.6 x 12.7 cm

RS12949
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

wooden panel divided into sections: a pink section with a microchip, a mint green section, a section with an eye, a white section, and a blue section; the microchip is attached to the eye

ROBERT SMITHSON

Radio Cyclops, 1964
Plexiglas, steel and mirror on wood
18 x 26 in  
45.7 x 66.0 cm

RS15812
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

green, wormy shape in the center surrounded by nude figures and the word "motel" in a sound effect bubble

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Motel text], 1963
Mixed media with collage on paper
30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm

RS12626
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate

 

sound effect bubble enclosed in rectangles with green zigzag lines surrounded by nude figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Zig zag star center, motorcyclist with wings, and microscope with wings], 1964
Pencil and crayon on paper
28 x 22 in
71.1 x 55.9 cm

RS12625
radiating ovals surrounded by nude figures within sound effect bubbles

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Seven radiating circles with pink centers and motorcycle rider], 1963
Pencil and crayon on paper
30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm

RS12633
 
Collection Nancy Holt Estate
box with a cross and a plate with rubber duckies and babies

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Record player], 1962

Record player with found objects and collage 

5 1/4 x 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (closed), 14 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. (open)

 

RS14616

deformed shape surrounded by nude figures

ROBERT SMITHSON

Untitled [Pink psychedelic center], 1964
Pencil and crayon on paper
28 x 22 in
71.1 x 55.9 cm

RS12638
 

 

Press Release

Robert Smithson - Pop - Exhibitions - James Cohan

ROBERT SMITHSON, Untitled [Man in colonial American dress and Indian], 1963

Robert Smithson

Pop

November 20, 2015 - JAN 17, 2016, 2016

Opening Reception: November 20, 6-8 PM

 

A Conversation with Eugenie Tsai, Jens Hoffmann, and Andrianna Campbell: January 10, 1 PM

 

James Cohan is pleased to present Pop, an exhibition of the late Robert Smithson’s works on paper and select sculpture from 1962-64, on view from November 21 through January 10, 2016.  This exhibition marks the debut of James Cohan’s second NYC gallery space located on the Lower East Side.

 

In 1963, at the age of twenty-five, Robert Smithson was immersed in the vitality and experimentation of the burgeoning downtown New York art scene. Smithson fed on the clashes of style, form and meaning found along his rambles through the city; from the downtown kiosks hawking porno magazines and comic books, to the movie houses of Forty-Second Street with their “low budget mysticism of horror films,” to the mineral displays at the Museum of Natural History, and across town to the Met’s Byzantine paintings and the “cold glass boxes” along Park Avenue. From this absorption of the city, Smithson developed his complex theory of entropy and the symbolic language he used to explore it. Art critic Carter Radcliff explained that for Smithson “meaning emerged from the disintegration of meaning,” and “in 1962, that argument flowed from the restless ironies of his hand.”

 

Smithson’s prolific drawings from this period, including those about language and Christian iconography, sought out disorder from the hierarchies of social conventions and popular culture. The series of drawings on view at the gallery are composed like biblical panel paintings with collaged or drawn elements in the center of the page surrounded by free-floating figures in nested zigzag motifs. The erotic imagery includes male and female nudes depicted as American icons sporting baseball caps and scuba masks, lifting weights, and riding horses, while others are pin-ups and action figures recast from legend with wings and thunder bolts. The works in Pop highlight Smithson’s search for what curator Eugenie Tsai referred to as “comparative mythologies,” or modern-day equivalents to the archetypal models established throughout the history of human culture.

Today, fifty years later, the works continue to resonate for their timeless dualities—the popular and the rarefied, the modern and the classic, the sacred and the profane, while they give us insight into the imagination of an artist who was to become one the defining figures of the 20th century.

 

Robert Smithson (b. 1938, Passaic, New Jersey, d. 1973, Amarillo, Texas), was an American artist, internationally renowned for pioneering the earthworks movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Smithson is most well-known for taking artwork out of the confines of the white cube, with his iconic earthwork, Spiral Jetty (1970), as well as other land art works such as Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971), and Amarillo Ramp (1973). Smithson studied painting and illustration at the Art Students League of New York as a young man, and by 1963 had five solo gallery exhibitions.

 

From 1966 until his death in 1973, Smithson showed at Dwan Gallery in New York, Konrad Fischer in Dusseldorf, and Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. Smithson’s work has been the subject of numerous monographic exhibitions, including Robert Smithson Sculpture, curated by Robert Hobbs at Cornell University, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MI (1980); Robert Smithson Unearthed: Works on Paper, 1957 – 73, curated by Eugenie Tsai at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY (1991); and Robert Smithson, curated by Eugenie Tsai with Connie Butler at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Smithson has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2012); Ghosts in the Machine, curated by Massimiliano Gioni at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2012); America is Hard to See at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY curated by Donna De Salvo, et al (2015), and All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor, the 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2015).

 

For press inquiries, please contact Jeffrey Waldron at jwaldron@jamescohan.com or 212-714-9500

 

For other inquiries, please contact Allison Galgiani at agalgiani@jamescohan.com or at 212-714-9500

Back To Top