A Nonsite, Pine Barrens, New Jersey

1967 (Photostat of map); 1968 (Nonsite)

Robert Smithson

Artist, American, 1938 - 1973

We look slightly down at a hexagonal, abstract sculpture made with teal-blue, wooden bins radiating out in six arms from a smaller hexagonal bin in the center. Each of the six arms tapers from wider and taller bins at the perimeter to narrower, shorter bins near the center. Light brown sand partially fills the bins. The bins sit on a white platform, the outlines of which follow the six sides of the snowflake-like arrangement of bins. The platform sits on battleship-gray carpet.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    painted aluminum, sand, painted wood, and Photostat of map with typed text

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Virginia Dwan

  • Dimensions

    overall (Nonsite): 30.48 × 166.37 × 166.37 cm (12 × 65 1/2 × 65 1/2 in.)
    overall (Photostat of map with typed text): 32 × 27 cm (12 5/8 × 10 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    2013.19.2.1

Associated Artworks

A Nonsite, Pine Barrens, New Jersey

Robert Smithson

1967

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Virginia Dwan, New York; gift 2013 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1980

  • Robert Smithson: Sculpture, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art; Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; American Pavilion, 40th Biennale, Venice; ARC, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris; Sara Hilder Museum, Helsinki; Lehmbruck Museum, Duisberg; Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 1980-1984, no. S18 (1980-1982 catalogue for U.S. venues), S16 (Paris and Otterlo catalogues), repro.

2012

  • Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2012-2013.

2014

  • Robert Smithson's New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, 2014, no. 6, repro.

Bibliography

2004

  • Graziani, Ron. Robert Smithson and the American Landscape. New York, 2004: 71, figs. 18(A), 18(B).

2013

  • Meyer, James. "Robert Smithson, A Non-Site (Pine Barrens, New Jersey) and Glass Stratum." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 49 (Fall 2013): 26-27, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right on map: R. Smithson 67; lower center, typed on label: A NONSITE (an indoor earthwork) / 31 sub-divisions based on a hexagonal / "airfield" in the Woodmansie Quadrangle - / New Jersey (Topographic) map. Each sub - / division of the Nonsite contains sand / from the site shown on the map. Tours / between the Nonsite and the site are possible. / The red dot on the map is the place where / the sand was collected.

Wikidata ID

Q63864424

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