Robert Smithson's Dead Tree in a white gallery space

Robert Smithson works in "The Power of Wonder" at Museum unter Tage in Bochum, Germany

Works by Robert Smithson will be included in the group exhibition The Power of Wonder: New Materialisms in Contemporary Art at Museum unter Tage in Bochum, Germany. 

Two artworks that Robert Smithson originally made during his time in Germany in 1969 will be on view in the exhibition: Mirror Displacement: Indoors (1969) and Essen Earth  and Mirrors (for Bernd and Hilla Becher) (1969).

The Power of Wonder considers artworks in which the formative forces of the material are essential in the creation of the artwork. Rather than focusing on humankind as an organizing force, the material itself exerts an active agency. Seemingly inanimate materials such as rocks lead their own independent existence. They combine with other organic and inorganic things such as plants, fungi, or humans to form temporary networks. Artworks by the following artists are included in The Power of Wonder: Ilana Halperin, Agata Ingarden, David Jablonowski, Markus Kastieß, SUPERFLEX, and Robert Smithson.

Learn more about the exhibition on our website here and on the Museum unter Tage website here.

Robert Smithson, Mirror Displacement: Indoors (Tree from Langenfeld, Germany) (1969) [destroyed]

Created for Prospect 69 at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany

Tree, mirrors

Archived News

two figures walking through a sand quarry

Research Fellowship Webinar with Rory O'Dea

Join us on Thursday October 13th for a webinar by 2022 Holt/Smithson Research Fellow, Rory O'Dea.
Rory will share his research surrounding Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt's time and work in the Pine Barrens, NJ.

Robert Smithson's Lake Edge Crescents

2022 Research Fellow: Margo Handwerker

We are delighted to announce our second 2022 Holt/Smithson Foundation Research Fellowship awardee: Margo Handwerker. 

Margo Handwerker is Chief Curator and Director of the Texas State Galleries at Texas State University. Handwerker holds a Ph.D. from the School of Architecture at Princeton University and a Masters in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a member of M12 STUDIO, a group of artists, researchers, and writers collectively based in Big Springs, Nebraska.

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson seated on chairs in their NYC loft

First Annual Holt/Smithson Foundation Lecture

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