Amarillo Ramp

Robert Smithson
1973
Lake Tecovas, Amarillo, Texas
Rocks, earth
Diameter: 140 ft. (42.7 meters); Maximum height: 15 ft. (4.6 meters)

Constructed to emerge from the base of an artificial lake, ​Amarillo Ramp ​now lies in a dried-up basin, its original structure altered by erosion. It is Smithson’s final earthwork; while surveying the site in 1973, Smithson was killed in a plane crash alongside pilot Gale Ray Rogers and photographer Richard I. Curtin. The sculpture was posthumously completed by Nancy Holt and artists Tony Shafrazi and Richard Serra. Overgrown with mesquite, its once-defined edges sloping into the earth, ​Amarillo Ramp i​s a solemn illustration of entropy. Continued efforts for its restoration and preservation as a ruin speak to the lasting impact of Smithson’s legacy.

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