Australia’s first Robert Smithson exhibition announced

An exhibition dedicated to the short life of prolific American artist Robert Smithson - widely recognised as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century - will open at The University of Queensland Art Museum on March 10, 2018. Robert Smithson: Time Crystals draws together key works of sculpture, film, photography, drawing, prints, and texts, most of them never previously exhibited in Australia. Best known for his radical land art of the 1960s and early 1970s, the Smithson exhibition will feature artworks loaned from major Australian and international collections. The Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art in Washington DC will loan items from Robert Smithson's personal papers and library for the first time in Australia. The largest loan ever from the Archives of American Art will include sketches, preparatory drawings, correspondence, photographs, and handwritten manuscripts. Exhibition co-curator Dr Amelia Barikin of UQ said a distinctive aspect of the exhibition was its juxtaposition of key artworks with rarely seen archival material. "Smithson was a prolific writer and an avid collector of visual material, with many of the items in his collection serving as source material for his projects," Dr Barikin said.