Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973)
In 1967 Smithson began exploring industrial areas around New Jersey and was fascinated by the sight of dump trucks excavating tons of earth and rock that he described in an essay as the equivalents of the monuments of antiquity. This resulted in the series of ‘non-sites’ in which earth and rocks collected from a specific area are installed in the gallery as sculptures, often combined with mirrors or glass. In September 1968, Smithson published the essay “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects” in Artforum that promoted the work of the first wave of land art artists, and in 1969 he began producing land art pieces to further explore concepts gained from his readings of William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and George Kubler. (…) On July 20, 1973, Smithson died in a plane crash, while surveying sites for his work Amarillo Ramp in Texas. He was 35 years old. Despite his early death, and relatively few surviving major works, Smithson has a cult following amongst many contemporary artists. Wikipedia
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