{"data":{"id":"29640","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":29640,"topgoose_id":389,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":29640,"title":"Smithsonite Spiral","display_artist_text":"Carl Andre","display_date":"1973","accession_number":"2008.324a-mmm","dimensions":"Overall: 30 × 27 in. (76.2 × 68.6 cm)","medium":"Zinc plated steel","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Gift of the Estate of Robert Smithson","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eCarl Andre, \u003cem\u003eSmithsonite Spiral\u003c/em\u003e, 1973. Zinc plated steel, overall: 30 × 27 in. (76.2 × 68.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Estate of Robert Smithson 2008.324a-mmm. © Holt-Smithson Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eThe title of Carl Andre’s \u003ci\u003eSmithsonite Spiral\u003c/i\u003e is a pun–a playful use of language that is typical for Andre, who is a poet as well as an artist. It refers to his friend, the sculptor Robert Smithson (1938-1973) and to his best-known site-specific work, \u003ci\u003eSpiral \u003c/i\u003e\u003ca\u003e\u003ci\u003eJetty\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, (1970), a coil of salt-encrusted black \u003ca\u003ebasalt\u003c/a\u003e and earth, situated in an abandoned oil-drilling site in the \u003ca\u003eGreat Salt Lake\u003c/a\u003e, Utah. Andre and Smithson both engaged with the natural world through using raw minerals in their work, but their approaches differed. Andre’s \u003ci\u003eSmithsonite Spiral\u003c/i\u003e is composed from zinc, an irreducible element whose physical presence and chemical makeup emphasizes durability and permanence. By contrast, Smithson’s \u003ci\u003eSpiral Jetty\u003c/i\u003e, as a fragile earthwork that has been submerged periodically by the waters of the Great Salt Lake since its creation, explores the theme of entropy–the tendency of matter and energy to degrade into a state of disorder. As Andre later put it: “It is as if Bob took the rational, Faustian dream of man ordering nature into a re-found and progressive Eden, and knowing its futility he sought instead to build some corners of hell here and there . . .”\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A spiral of weathered rectangular metal tiles arranged on a plain white background.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T15:28:03.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T11:59:16.011-05:00","images":[{"id":108279,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/29640/2008_324a-mmm_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"21","type":"artist"}]}}}}