Oral history interview with Robert Smithson

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Oral history interview with Robert Smithson

1972 July 14-19

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a3c8b740-0374-4dc6-87f9-616fbbc142c1

An interview of Robert Smithson conducted 1972 July 14-19, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art at 799 Greenwich Street in New York on July 14 and 19 1972. Smithson speaks of growing up in Passaic, New Jersey; primary and high school; high school art education; going to New York Museums; writing and its impact on art work; the Artists Gallery; the Art Students League; his time in the army; the Cedar Bar; Quicksand; the Museum of Modern Art; art education; Sam Smithson; his father; traveling the U.S.; Brooklyn Museum School; impact of the Museum of Natural History; moving to New York; visiting Europe; psychology; show at the George Lester Gallery; the Broken Circle; Dallas-Fort Worth Airport; crystalline structures; meeting William Carlos Williams; cosmology; Enantiomorphic Chambers; mapping; painting and drawing; the Dwan Gallery; getting married; Aerial Art; earthworks; sculpture; the Cryosphere; Alogon; Rome; stratas; nonsites; When Attitudes Become Form; Attitudes; mining sites and quarries; light and reflection; the Spiral Jetty; coordination of large works; documentation; selection of sites; Gyrostasis; weather's impact and seasonal change of the Spiral Jetty; confines of the gallery and museum; mirrors; landscapes; artist materials; art education; traveling; art and vacations; documenta; Smithson also recalls Federica Beer-Monti , Hugh Stix , Danny Donohue, Joe Levin, Charlie Hasloff, John Cassavetes , Alan Brilliant, Irving Sandler, Barnett Newman, Richard Bellamy,John Groth, Lawrence Alloway, T. S. Elliot, Donald Judd, William Carlos Williams, Jackson Pollock, William Burroughs, Ad Reinhardt, Dan Flavin, Virginia Dwan, Rosalind Krauss, and others.

Sound recording: 2 sound tape reels ; 5 in.Transcript: 29 p.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8270340

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 3 Entities related to this resource.

Cummings, Paul (Singer)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66m39mt (person)

Littlefield was a painter, writer and art collector; New York, N.Y. Died 1969. Cummings, an art historian, was an expert on drawings and prints. From the description of William Horace Littlefield letters and photographs to Paul Cummings, 1951-1969. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122390381 Art historian and editor; New York, N.Y. From the description of Paul Cummings papers, 1967-1993. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122594609 ...

Smithson, Robert

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bq0rt1 (person)

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was the pioneer of land and earthworks art. He was also a noted sculptor, painter, writer, and lecturer working primarily in New York City. Smithson's wife, Nancy Holt (1938-) was a noted sculptor and filmmaker and also worked as an earthworks artist. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Smithson expressed an early interest in art, enrolling in classes at the Brooklyn Museum School and the Art Student's League in New York while still attending high sc...

Dwan, Virginia ca. um 1935-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vd85q7 (person)

Art dealer (New York, N.Y.). From the description of Oral history interview with Virginia Dwan, 1984 Mar. 21-June 7. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 646397025 From the description of Virginia Dwan interviews, 1984 Mar. 21 - June 7. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220181953 Virginia Dwan is an art dealer from New York, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Virginia Dwan, 1984 Mar. 21-June 7. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 756821051 ...