Page 5 - Smithson Foundation News Today

Land Art: investigating humanity’s relationship to nature The 1960s movement popularized taking art outside of the museum Upon first glance, Richard Long’s A Line Made by Walking (1967) appears to be a simple monochrome photograph of a grassy field with trees in the distance. The photo, however, only serves as a form of documentation of the artwork itself, which is Long’s interaction with the terrain. This avant-garde form of artmaking is classified as Land Art. Also known as Earth art, ...

Former Documenta Advisor Was Tied to Nazis – New evidence has surfaced revealing that the influential German art historian Werner Haftmann was a member of the SA, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing. Haftmann was the founding director of Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie and an early influence on Documenta. Writer Karin Wieland and sociologist Heinz Bude uncovered evidence that Haftmann joined the SA and the Nazi Party in 1933, despite him testifying after World War II that he had never offic...

Holt/Smithson Foundation announces representation of Nancy Holt by Sprüth Magers Nancy Holt on a NYC rooftop, October 1977. Photo: Leandro Katz. © Holt-Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA/New York. SANTA FE, NM .- Nancy Holt (1938-2014) recalibrated the limits of art. She expanded the places where art could be found and embraced the new media of her time. A pioneer of site-specific installation and the moving image, Holt was a member of the earth, land, and conceptual art movements. Her ric...

Lisa Le Feuvre, executive director, Holt-Smithson Foundation. Photo courtesy of Claudine Hartzel. Lisa Le Feuvre, the head of the Holt-Smithson Foundation, which she has led since 2017, spends a lot of time reading. In fact, it’s how she begins most of her mornings, although she doesn’t consider it a luxury. Education for all is one of her passions. We spoke with Le Feuvre about her recent work with the artists’ foundation, what she’s been reading of late, and why she advocates for li...

Two of the most famous pieces of Land Art—Robert Smithsons Spiral Jetty(1970) and Nancy Holts (1973-76), each sited remotely in the Utah landscape—are more widely known through photography, writing and legend than firsthand experience. Continuing the late couple’s investigation of places on the planet at once real and imagined, the Holt/Smithson Foundation has just invited five contemporary artists—Tacita Dean, Renée Green, Sky Hopinka, Joan Jonas, and Oscar Santillán—to de...

Robert Smithson, Grave Mounds with Object, ca. 1966 © HOLT/SMITHSON FOUNDATION / VAGA AT ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY Curated by Highsnobiety and presented during the time period formerly known as Paris Men’s Fashion Week, “Not In Paris 2” is our second in a series of bi-annual digital exhibitions celebrating creativity in the age of remote interactions. Head here for the full series and cop our new merch via our online store. Throughout his career, the late artist Robert Smithson dr...

/ Where does one begin when exploring the oeuvre of Robert Smithson? As an autodidact, his interests in travel, cartography, geology, architectural ruins, prehistory, philosophy, religion, science fiction, popular culture and language spiral through his work while, in his practice, he produced paintings, drawings, sculptures, architectural schemes, films, photographs, writings, earthworks and all the stops between. As a result, there are many potential entry points. I guess I was always intere...

Photo by Andy Romer Photography, courtesy of Madison Square Park. Abigail DeVille will chat on Zoom with Edward Berenson, a Statue of Liberty expert, about her new exhibition “Light of Freedom,” on view through January 31, 2021. It’s inspired by Lady Liberty’s arm and torch, which were displayed in Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882, as part of the effort to fundraise for the massive sculpture’s completion. DeVille invites audiences to reconsider this symbol of American freedom t...