Robert Smithson, Malibu (1964)
Colored plastic
24 x 18 x 1 in. (61 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

geometric abstract composition with glittery surfaces of pink, blue, red, black, and pearl

Robert Smithson, Malibu (1964)
Colored plastic
24 x 18 x 1 in. (61 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

1964—1966

Malibu

Robert Smithson
1964
Colored plastic
24 x 18 x 1 in. (61 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

In Malibu (1964), Robert Smithson brings together geometric grid lines, graphic starburst forms, and iridescent plastic. Made as Smithson was developing sculptural forms from his collages, the wall-based work uses a jagged starburst motif that also appears in his drawings of the period.

In Smithson’s earlier drawings, similar forms often frame erotic figures drawn from popular culture. In Malibu, the figure disappears, leaving the geometric structure itself. The work marks Smithson’s increasing turn toward abstraction and the angular, crystalline forms that would characterize his sculptures of the mid-1960s.

I gave up painting around 1963 and began to work plastics in a crystalline way. I began to develop structures based on a particular concern with the elements of the material itself. This was essentially abstract and devoid of any mythological content.

Robert Smithson, 1972

Robert Smithson, interview by Paul Cummings, July 14 and 19, 1972, Oral History Interview with Robert Smithson, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art transcript.

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a wall sculpture with bright neon colors and machine parts interacting with a cutout image of a woman
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Robert Smithson
1964
1964—1966

Robert Smithson's "Honeymoon Machine" incorporates photographic imagery of a female pin-up, fusing body and machine. Wires and circuitry connect the figure to a device resembling a generator, suggesting a transfer of energy between the human body and an industrial system. Here, sexuality becomes a form of energy, circulating through a mechanized circuit.

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a wall based sculpture with an eye at the center
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Robert Smithson
1964
1964—1966

In Radio Cyclops (1964), Robert Smithson places a wide-open eye at the center, linked via a circuit to a hot pink band of color. Looking at the sculpture, one sees one’s own eyes looking back, reflected and multiplied in its mirrored surfaces. Made at a time when Smithson was experimenting with plastics and developing sculptural ideas from his collages, this wall-based sculpture incorporates Plexiglass, polished blue steel, and mirrors on a wooden support.

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