Untitled (Model)
Smithson once described himself as the "keeper of derangement," and even early sculptures such as this one bear witness to his life-long desire to confound our sense of space. The stepped forms were created by stacking and then carving away sections of plastic panels—each half of the work is a mirror image of the other. Smithson rotated the piece ninety degrees and hung it on the wall, thereby generating a strange optical experience: as the square modules decrease in regular increments, they create the illusion of a plunging perspective line, with the vanishing point in the lower right corner. Perspective, however, is an effect usually confined to the flat surface of a painting: sculptures, which already exist in space, have no need for it. Making perspective "three dimensional," as Smithson once said, is therefore a logical absurdity.
Artwork Details
- Title: Untitled (Model)
- Artist: Robert Smithson (American, Passaic, New Jersey 1938–1973 Amarillo, Texas)
- Date: 1967
- Medium: Fiberboard, polystyrene (PS) and alkyd paint
- Dimensions: 10 3/8 × 10 1/2 × 9 in., 6 lb. (26.4 × 26.7 × 22.9 cm, 2.7 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Gift of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz, 1981
- Object Number: 1981.498
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Robert Smithson
Multiples, Inc.
1970
Robert Smithson
1970
Robert Smithson
1966
Robert Smithson
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Robert Smithson
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