spiral jetty film still

Films by Holt and Smithson on view at The Museum of Modern Art

We are pleased to share that three films by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collection gallery 411 of the David Geffen Wing.

This presentation focuses on Spiral Jetty (1970), Swamp (1971), and Sun Tunnels (1978). Newly restored scans of the first two works are presented as part of a collaboration between Holt/Smithson Foundation and MoMA to preserve their moving-image work.

The moving image was a significant medium for Holt. Her films include Utah Sequences (1970) and Pine Barrens (1975); her videos include Going Around in Circles (1973) and Revolve; and she made one video sculpture, Points of View (1974). In addition to Swamp, she co-authored  East Coast/West Coast (1969) and Mono Lake (1968/2004) with Smithson.

Both popular and artists’ film were important to Smithson: he developed several film ideas in drawings for movie treatments, and in his writings he frequently referred to cinema, noting an interest in low-budget science-fiction films associated with directors such as Roger Corman, the experimental film culture surrounding figures like Kenneth Anger, the structural films of Hollis Frampton, and the landscapes of Michelangelo Antonioni.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty [still] (1970)
16 mm film 
Color, sound
Duration: 35 minutes

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

Archived News

a notebook showing calculations for Sun Tunnels

Nancy Holt’s Project Files Digitized at the Archives of American Art

The papers of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are held at the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. This series documents more than 50 projects developed by Holt from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, offering insights into her working processes and the development of her ideas from initial conception through to completion.

poster for Smithson's film Spiral Jetty 1970 cropped

Soft Network Benefit Auction

We are pleased to participate in the Soft Network Benefit Auction, open on Artsy from September 23 until October 7, 2026. The auction brings together works in support of Soft Network and the Artist Foundations and Estate Leaders List (AFELL), an international network for artists and stewards of artists’ estates and legacies. Holt/Smithson Foundation has donated two rare works of art by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson to the auction to help further this goal.