Island of Coal
Drawing directly onto the surface of a found photograph (still bearing its price tag), Smithson deposited a rough pile of black coal in the middle of a well manicured public park graced with picturesque vistas. In doing so, the artist undermined our complacent acceptance of antiseptic public spaces and, by extension, our consciousness: the ugly, but pertinent, processes and infinite span of geologic time.
Artwork Details
- Title: Island of Coal
- Artist: Robert Smithson (American, Passaic, New Jersey 1938–1973 Amarillo, Texas)
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 18.1 x 23.8 cm (7 1/8 x 9 3/8 in. )
- Classifications: Photographs, Drawings
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2001
- Object Number: 2001.273
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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