Chapter Two of Tuesday Texts

We are delighted to announce that throughout January and February we will be publishing a second 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.

Both Holt and Smithson opened new ways of thinking about what art might be, and where it might be found. Their ideas resonate through artistic and cultural production of the present, developing innovative ways of exploring our relationship with the planet and expanding the limits of artistic practice. The Scholarly Text Program expands these legacies by commissioning and publishing new writing.

Through January and February we will publish a new text every Tuesday. Each essay includes images selected by the author, a short bibliography, citation reference, and endnotes pointing to the author’s references.

The single artworks range from landmark earthworks and texts to lesser known drawings, moving image works, and rarely seen two-dimensional works. Focused as a tool for researchers at all stages, the Scholarly Text Program will publish two essays on each work, presenting differing opinions and approaches and making links to topics that range from geology to ecology, poetry, architecture, public art, sculpture, drawing, film, philosophy, site, and all the stops between.

The second chapter of Tuesday Texts publishes the following essays:

Kelly Baum on Holt's Pine Barrens  (1975)

Rory O’Dea on Smithson's The Monuments of Passaic (1967)

Jeremy Millar on Smithson's Hotel Palenque (1969/1972)

Leigh Arnold on Smithson's Texas Overflow (1970)

Anya Novak on Smithson's Broken Circle/Spiral Hill  (1971)

Lori Zippay on Smithson and Holt's collaborative film Swamp (1971)

Sarah Hamill on Holt's 30 Below (1979)

Suzaan Boettger on Smithson's My House is a Decayed House (1962)

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson at a diner in New York City, circa 1970.⁠
Photograph: Gianfranco Gorgoni⁠

Archived News

Thursday Thoughts: Series One

In May of 2025 we shared our first series of Thursday Thoughts—a weekly series publishing interviews with Robert Smithson or Nancy Holt to our website. Interviews with Holt and Smithson provide a distinct vantage into their artistic process and the evolution of their thoughts throughout time.