a large lump of asphalt and a small collection of flight arranged on a white pedastal

2021 Research Fellows: Markus Karstieß and Eva Schmidt

We are pleased to announce the final fellowship awardees in our 2021 Holt/Smithson Foundation Research Fellowship season: Markus Karstieß and Eva Schmidt.

Markus Karstieß and Eva Schmidt will collaborate on a Research Fellowship focused on Robert Smithson’s 1968 work Asphalt Lump and his related work made in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany. 

Markus is an artist and curator. He is Professor for Fine Art Ceramics at the Institute for Ceramic and Glass Art (IKKG), University of Applied Sciences Koblenz. Eva Schmidt is an art theorist and curator. From 2004 to 2019 she was head of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Siegen, and previously Director of the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen. In 2000 Eva (with Kai Voeckler) edited of the German translation of The Writings of Robert Smithson. 

Our Research Fellowships aim to encourage new research on the work, ideas, and creative legacies of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson. We look forward to thinking with Markus and Eva to expand and develop critical research on Smithson.

Robert Smithson, Asphalt Lump (1968)
From Indifferent Matter: From Object to Sculpture (25 July – 20 October 2013) at the Henry Moore Institute,
Leeds
8 x 35 x 26 inches (20 x 90 x 66 cm)
Shown alongside a collection of chipped flint known as eoliths from Leeds Museums and Galleries Collection.
Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones

Image courtesy Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

Archived News

large steel duct coming out of the ground and spanning large gaps with a person standing underneath

Chapter Seven of Tuesday Texts

We are happy to announce that throughout October we are publishing a seventh chapter of our Tuesday Text Series as part of our ongoing Scholarly Text Program, which invites thinkers to focus on a single artwork by Holt and/or Smithson. 

Every Tuesday we will publish a text to our website that includes images selected by the author, a short bibliography, citation reference, and endnotes pointing to the author’s references.

an image of a book with a Smithson drawing on the cover

Letters and early drawings by Robert Smithson published in Centre Pompidou journal

The Fall issue of the Centre Pompidou journal Les cahiers du musée national d’art moderne publishes for the very first time Robert Smithson’s letters and writings from Rome, accompanied by previously unpublished early drawings.

The French language publication includes translations of letters Smithson wrote to Nancy Holt in 1959-1961 and letters Smithson sent to George Lester between 1960 and 1963. George Lester offered Smithson his first solo international exhibition at Galleria George Lester in Rome in 1961.