On Location: Siting Robert Smithson and His Contemporaries

by Simon Dell

On Location follows the movements of several key 1960s artists who began to work directly with the exhibition space, creating temporary installations of challenging the physical fabric of the gallery by transforming its architecture. Others moved beyond the gallery to work on city streets or in the countryside. And others explored the mechanisms of the art world, investigating the publications and reproductions which now frequently replaced the direct experience of individual works. Robert Smithson engaged in different ways with all of these practices and as a result his work plays a pivotal role in this book.

188 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2008

Reviews

[Mary]

Essay by Simon Dell charts the changing relationship to space in the mid/late 20th century artwork, the self-conscious investigation of the limits of the exhibit space and the movement outside of it. Minimalism, earthworks, electronic art, conceptual art, installation art, the dematerialization of the art object all come into play.