Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

collage and drawing on graph paper depicting a theoretical continent of Lemuria, a map, and many handwritten notes

Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria [detail] (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria [detail] (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria [detail] (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Robert Smithson, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria [detail] (1969)

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Works on Paper

The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria

Robert Smithson

1969

Brown ink, crayon, graphite, and collage on paper

22 ¼ x 17 ¼ in. (56.5 x 43.8 cm)

Collection: Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Closely related to Smithson’s slidework Hypothetical Continent in Shells: Lemuria (1969), this two-dimensional work provides conceptual details around the object of representation. Lemuria, a theoretical continent whose existence was quickly disproved by the scientific community, comes to life through the artist’s attention. “You don’t have to have existence to exist,” Smithson asserted in Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan (1969).

The collage includes maps of both the fictional island and the placement of Smithson’s sculptural rendition, thus connecting the concepts while simultaneously emphasizing their removal from one another. Similarly to Smithson’s Nonsites, which bring attention to places often overlooked or elsewhere, The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria resuscitates an idea from pedagogical obscurity.

In the Nonsites, the prehistoric reference comes through, but the sites are all here today, within the maps of materials (stone, mud, grass and shells). All of these things point to continents and land masses that don't exist today. That establishes a context.

Robert Smithson

“Interview with Robert Smithson (1970),” eds. Paul Toner and Robert Smithson in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, ed. Jack Flam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996), p236.

The Hypothetical Continent of Lemuria

Related Info

See Also