Displaying items by tag: robert smithson

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, which houses Robert Smithson's famous land work, Spiral Jetty, is facing the most critical drought in history.

Water is dropping south of the lake's historic low, set in 1963. According to a story by the Salt Lake Tribune, reported in February, the lake level was at an all-time low at 4,193.8 feet and "many observers expect it to dip to a new historic low within the year, depending on precipitation this winter."

The Dia Art Foundation is well known for its stewardship of two of the greatest pieces of American land art: Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” in Utah and Walter De Maria’s “Lightning Field” in New Mexico.

In 2015, after years of planning, it will open an ambitious new long-term project that is intended to ask provocative questions about what “American” means and to push the boundaries of the foundation’s roots in the Minimalist and Conceptual movements of the 1960s and ’70s.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. received a promised gift of 250 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs from the American art collector and gallerist Virginia Dwan. The bequest, which includes works by Robert Smithson, Yves Klein, Ad Reinhardt and Sol LeWitt, will help bolster the museum’s postwar and minimalist holdings.

The National Gallery’s director, Earl A. Powell, said, “The National Gallery of Art is thrilled to be the beneficiary of Ms. Dwan’s seminal collection. The pledge will significantly strengthen our holdings of art from the 1960s and 1970s.” Dwan owned and helmed the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles and New York during the ‘60s and ‘70s. She presented the group exhibition My Country ‘Tis of Thee in 1962, one of the earliest pop art shows in the United States.

Dwan’s collection will be featured in the exhibition From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971 when the National Gallery’s East Building reopens in 2016. The space will close next year for a maintenance and expansion project.

The Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ will celebrate its 100^th anniversary on January 15, 2014. Beginning this fall and continuing throughout the following year, the museum will hold a variety of celebratory events and activities. In addition, the Montclair Museum will install the first in what it hopes to be a series of commissioned works for the institution’s outdoor sculpture garden. The sculptor Jean Shin will create works for this year’s installation.

Highlights from the upcoming centennial celebration include 100 Year, 100 Voices, a crowdsourced audio-tour project that invites members of the Montclair community to comment on their favorite work in the upcoming exhibition 100 Works for 100 Years; a lecture by University of San Francisco professor and author of Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of the Museum in America, Marjorie Schwarzer; and Robert Smithson’s New Jersey, an exhibition highlighting the monumental works of New Jersey native and one of the founders of the Land Art movement, Robert Smithson.

The Montclair Art Museum is devoted to American art and Native American art forms. Its collection consists of over 12,000 works and includes paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculpture dating from the 18^th century to the present. The museum has the only gallery in the world dedicated solely to the work of the 19^th century American painter George Inness, who lived and worked in Montclair.