Robert Smithson, and: Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere (review)

Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, once penned a series of book reviews critiquing books that had never been written. In true Borgesian fashion, he explained that since people seemed more inclined to read the reviews, sometimes not finding time for the book itself, it seemed that producing only the critique was a better approach. His caricature of reading habits in our fast-paced lives came to mind as I wondered how I might enthusiastically encourage others to read Robert Smithson and Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere, the two books that are the subject of this review. Neither of these full-bodied volumes can be captured in this short piece. Given this, let me begin by saying that all who have an interest in Robert Smithson's impact on contemporary art should put this review aside and turn to the books directly.

Robert Smithson, fully illustrated and augmented by writings by Eugenie Tsai, Alexander Alberro, Suzaan Boettger, Mark Linder, Ann Reynolds, Jennifer L. Roberts, Richard Sieburth, Robert A. Sobieszek, Moira Roth, Robert Smithson, Cornelia H. Butler and Thomas E. Crow, was conceived for the comprehensive American retrospective of Smithson's work, opening at the Whitney Museum in June. (It began at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and recently closed at the Dallas Museum of Art.) Smithson's knack for bridging incongruent perspectives comes across well in this oversize volume, as does his multi-layered legacy. Well-chosen photographs of his works (drawings, sculptures, nonsites, etc.) are mixed with cultural images as well as photographs of his excursions, giving this artist a dynamic presence despite being confined to the staid pages of the book. As one would expect of a catalogue, this publication offers many topical essays on the artist's complex and highly influential career as well as an overview of his short life. Born in 1938, Smithson died prematurely in 1973 when the plane he was using to survey a site crashed. Yet, as the catalogue details, the reach of his work is extraordinary.

What I liked most about the presentation was the way his drawing, "A Surd View for an Afternoon, 1970," used on the cover, captured his coarseness, complex mind and range of thought. A surd is defined as something that is irrational and voiceless. Sketched during an interview conducted in 1969, and signed in 1970, Smithson's surd map spins us around the time and space he develops, deploys and reconfigures in his projects. The scratchy composite, on a piece of graph paper, offers a glimpse of the gyrations of his mind. Composed of diagrammatic markings, explanatory words, directions and several of his signature motifs (the spiral, a map of New Jersey, and words we tend to find in discussions of his work such as "perception," "nonsite" and "entropy"), it is a map, a mirror and a plan. Its vertiginous quality is explained to some degree in the book's foreword, written by Jeremy Stick. Stick tells the reader that the difficulty in coming to grips with this far-reaching and paradoxical artist is due to the way Smithson extended the scope of his work outward to more and more distant locations. Yet, at the same time, he continued to integrate an awareness of the museum, gallery and art world in general in his projects. How this worked within his practice is unpacked by Thomas Crow to some degree when he speaks of Smithson's pursuit of the spiral. Homing in on this one motif, Crow illustrates this artist's remarkable intellectual reach. Similarly, the interview with Moira Roth, taped in 1973, allows us to see him through his own words. For example, although he is frequently coupled with Marcel Duchamp in discussions about the evolution...