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Robert Smithson

Spiral Jetty, 1970

Overview

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) is a site-specific sculpture that is located at Rozel Point on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Made of black basalt rocks, salt crystals, earth, and water, Spiral Jetty is a 1,500-foot-long coil, measuring approximately 15 feet wide, that stretches into the lake. The fractured rocky landscape and changing water levels of the Great Salt Lake appealed to Smithson’s interest in entropy, where the forces of nature can change the work at any moment in time.

Visiting information

As stewards of Spiral Jetty, Dia is committed to recording changes to the work over time through photographic documentation. Since 2012, a geospatial aerial photographer has documented Spiral Jetty once or twice annually in the Spring and/or Fall.

Spiral Jetty Aerial Documentation

Photographic and video material of Spiral Jetty is copyright protected. For rights and reproduction requests, contact rights@diaart.org.

Artwork Details

Artist
Robert Smithson
Medium
Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water
Reference number
1999.014
Title
Spiral Jetty
Dimensions
18000 x 180 in. (45720.0 x 457.2 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Year
1970
Credit line
Dia Art Foundation
Location
Great Salt Lake, Utah

Artist

Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1938. He died in Amarillo, Texas, in 1973.

 

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