A brilliant man and artist, he would forever change the physical landscape and how we perceive it. Should you ever have the good fortune to delve into some of his writings or read what has been written about him, you’ll find the word entropy used quite often to describe the basis or foundation of his thinking, philosophy and sculptural underpinnings. What does it mean and how does it relate?
Entropy (definition Merriam-Webster): 2a the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity; b a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder.
Smithson was a Land artist, part of a larger group of sculptors (working outside in nature), whose movement or trend, if you will, was later christened Earthworks. This new direction in art was attributed to its original founders, Robert Smithson and Claes Oldenburg - better known as a pop artist. In 1967, Oldenburg created what would later be recognized as the first earthwork. He paid a union grave-digger to dig a six foot long trench (shortly thereafter refilled in) or a “Hole” as it was titled, in the middle of New York’s Central Park. This act would also serendipitously open the doors to future art movements that would produce Conceptual and Minimalist sculptures. As I write this last sentence, I’m painfully aware of the sometimes hedonistic and inclusive nature of the art world at the expense of the society in which it exists, hermetically carrying about its business, naming its own movements, interests, and direction. The question I am often asked — “Is it art?” — continues to plague me to this day.
Suzaan Boettger, author of Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the Sixties, writes, “Oldenburg’s Hole was the first contemporary sculpture made directly in the ground. Yet it was dug at a time when the use of those unrefined materials specifically associated with the surface of the earth – dirt and sand – was gaining increasing importance in sculpture. In the United States the most immediate artistic precedent was the project (Robert) Smithson described in his 1967 article Towards the Development of an Air Terminal Site.”
Whether something is art or not, can be answered perhaps, in how it changes your perceptions, assumptions, and ideas about the ordinary.
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