person sitting on the ground between two piles of books

Friday Film Program: Season 2

This November Holt/Smithson Foundation invites you to join us for our second season of Friday Films.

This season of Friday Films presents films made by Holt and Smithson that relate to two current solo exhibitions of Robert Smithson’s work in Europe: Hypothetical Islands at Marian Goodman Gallery London and Primordial Beginnings at Galerie Marian Goodman Paris. Each weekend during November and early December we will be sharing on of the five films on view in Hypothetical Islands.

These two exhibitions mark a new partnership between Holt/Smithson Foundation and Marian Goodman Gallery, who exclusively represents Robert Smithson. Hypothetical Islands will pay attention to Smithson’s enduring interest in islands. It will present over fifty works spanning 1961 to 1973, many of which will be exhibited for the first time in many decades. In Paris, Primordial Beginnings investigates Smithson’s exploration of, to use his own words, “origins and primordial beginnings, […] the archetypal nature of things.” Both Hypothetical Islands and Primordial Beginnings show Smithson’s prescience and continued importance for our present.

Each film in the program will be made available from 12 p.m. Mountain Time (the time zone of our home base in New Mexico) on Friday through to 12 p.m. Mountain Time on Monday. A video introduction from individual artists and scholars will be shared Thursday before the screening.

The films will be available on Vimeo and on InstagramTV. Please stay tuned to our Holt/Smithson Foundation Instagram and Twitter pages for updates on the Friday Film Program and links to the films.

Friday Film Program Season 2 Schedule:

November 13, 2020:    
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970)

November 20, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, Mangrove Ring (1971)

December 4, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973/2013)

December 11, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, Bob with Books (1971)

December 18, 2020:    
Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Mono Lake (1968/2004)

Still from Nancy Holt, Bob with Books (1971)
Color, silent
16 mm film

©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.