person kneeling beside a sculptural wall, and using tools to mark the alignment of the shadow of the sculpture

40th Anniversary Celebration of Nancy Holt's "Time Span"

We are delighted to partner with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society this April to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nancy Holt's sculpture Time Span (1981) at Laguna Gloria, in Austin, Texas. 

In Time Span Holt highlights the overlapping cycles of personal and astronomical time. Each year on April 5, the artist’s birthday, a shadow is cast by the afternoon sun through the sculpture’s steel wheel to frame a plaque on the ground inscribed with the artwork’s date of completion, also April 5. Despite the solidity of its materials, Time Span reflects change, offering variable sight lines of the surrounding landscape at different times of the day and year.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this work we have collaborated with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society to create the following program of film screenings and discussions:

Outdoor Screening of Holt Films at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 3, 2021 at 8:15pm CDT

This in-person, outdoor screening at The Contemporary Austin's Laguna Gloria Campus will feature the Nancy Holt films Sun Tunnels (1978) and The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973/2014) as well as the collaborative film Swamp, made by Holt and Robert Smithson in 1969.

Purchase tickets for the screening and learn more about the health and safety guidelines for the event on The Contemporary Austin website.

Annual Viewing of Nancy Holt's Time Span Alignment at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 5, 2021 at 2pm CDT

Reserve tickets to witness the shadow alignment of Time Span through The Contemporary Austin website.

On Nancy Holt's Life and Art: A Conversation with DeeDee Halleck, Rachel Kushner, and Lisa Le Feuvre
April 5, 2021 at 6pm CDT
Virtual Discussion

On Nancy Holt’s birthdate, best-selling author, Rachel Kushner, interviews media activist DeeDee Halleck, Holt’s long-time collaborator and friend. With Holt/Smithson Foundation Executive Director Lisa Le Feuvre moderating, they will discuss Holt’s art, her life with Robert Smithson, Halleck’s memories of their time and work together, and the changing roles of women artists.

Register for this free Zoom event through The Contemporary Austin website.

Online Viewing of Holt and Smithson's East Coast/West Coast (1971) through Austin Film Society
April 3—10, 2021

In this improvised film, Holt assumes the role of an intellectual conceptual artist from New York while Smithson plays the stereotypical “non-conformist” from the West Coast. East Coast/West Coast (1971) will be available for online viewing the through the Austin Film Society website.

Nancy Holt working on the metal plaque in the ground that marks the completion of Time Span at 2pm on April 5, 1981. 

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Archived News

a constellation of the big dipper made of fire pits

Nancy Holt's Starfire acquired by Powder Art Foundation

We are very pleased to share Nancy Holt’s 1986 sculpture "Starfire" has found a permanent home in the collection of Powder Art Foundation in Eden, Utah. Powder Art Foundation is an outdoor art museum that works closely with Dia Art Foundation. "Starfire" comprises eight pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. The flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky, bringing the energy of distant stars down to earth.

forthcoming

Holt artworks in "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Light was a constant source of fascination for Nancy Holt throughout her four decades of artmaking. Whether drawn from the stars or powered by electricity, she approached light as a phenomenon, an idea, and a material in itself. Three of her pivotal works investigating the perceptual qualities of light are featured in the exhibition "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany.

Robert Smithson looking at the camera from the back of a stationwagon loaded with rocks

Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson

In 1968 Robert Smithson declared: “A great artist can make art by simply casting a glance.” On show until January 20, "Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson" at Marian Goodman Gallery Los Angeles takes him at his word and invites eighteen artists to join Smithson on the floor as partners who resist, improvise, and extend the rhythm of his thinking.

four steel pipes extending up from the floor with four viewing pipes pointed at four black painted circles on the wall

Holt's "Locators with Loci" on view in "Minimal" at the Bourse de Commerce

Nancy Holt's 1972 sculpture "Locators with Loci" is on view in the exhibition "Minimal" at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris until January 18, 2026. Curated by Jessica Morgan, Director of Dia Art Foundation, the exhibition traces the scope Minimal Arr through over a hundred works by some forty international artists.

a woman walking up a sand dune hill with her back to the camera

Joan Jonas: An Island Departure at the Farnsworth Art Museum

"Joan Jonas: An Island Departure, with Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson"  is currently on show at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine through to March 1, 2026. This special collaboration is part of our on-ongoing series of projects with artists working today.

A man standing next to a compost heap holding a mirror beside his leg, which reflects a woman holding a camera

Robert Smithson in Europe at Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop, Germany

"Robert Smithson in Europe" is currently on show at the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop,  Germany, until February 22, 2026. The exhibition brings together Robert Smithson’s artistic production in the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany, with a special focus on North Rhine-Westphalia, the region local to the city of Bottrop.