Label TextAlthough Smithson is best known as being one of the forefathers of the Earth art movement, he was friends with many of the major Minimalists, and showed with them early in his career, from which Terminal dates. Terminal employs Minimalism’s sharp geometric forms and industrial medium. However, unlike Judd’s regular repetition of a basic form, or LeWitt’s reconfiguration of shapes according to mathematics, Smithson’s work incorporates progression. Fascinated by the concept of entropy, in which all order tends toward disorder, Smithson’s shapes gradually decrease (or increase) in size, suggesting both infinite growth and reduction.
Exhibition History"Critics Choice" Detroit Institute of Arts, March - June 1967
"Robert Smithson," Dwan Gallery, New York, Nov. 29, 1966 - Jan. 5, 1967
Published References"Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., University of Chicago Press, 2016, p. 347.
"Robert Smithson" exhibition catalogue, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2004, ref. pgs. 124 (color image), 267
Robert Carleton Hobbs, "Robert Smithson: Sculpture," Cornell University Press, Ithica, 1981, ill. p. 73, 78.
Exhibition History"Critics Choice" Detroit Institute of Arts, March - June 1967
"Robert Smithson," Dwan Gallery, New York, Nov. 29, 1966 - Jan. 5, 1967
Published References"Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., University of Chicago Press, 2016, p. 347.
"Robert Smithson" exhibition catalogue, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2004, ref. pgs. 124 (color image), 267
Robert Carleton Hobbs, "Robert Smithson: Sculpture," Cornell University Press, Ithica, 1981, ill. p. 73, 78.
DimensionsOverall: 52 1/2 × 62 1/2 × 40 in., 86 lb. (133.4 × 158.8 × 101.6 cm, 39 kg.)
Accession Number 1985.26
Classificationssculpture
CopyrightARS
ProvenanceArtist; (Dwan Gallery, New York); Virginia Dwan, New York [acquired from the previous]; Des Moines Art Center [gift of the previous, 1985]
Collections
