Friday Film Screening on Sep 6—Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty"

In celebration of the upcoming livestream event From Dawn till Dusk:an online encounter between two earthworks by Robert Smithson on September 10th, we are hosting two special Friday Film screenings.

We begin on Friday September 6 with an online screening of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970), which will be available to stream online for 24 hours starting at 12pm Mountain Time (8:00pm Central European Time).

Smithson described the thirty-five-minute film as “a set of disconnections, a bramble of stabilized fragments taken from things obscure and fluid, ingredients trapped in a succession of frames, a stream of viscosities both still and moving.”  The original 16mm film of Spiral Jetty was recently re-digitized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in partnership with Holt/Smithson Foundation; this will be the first digital screening of this beautiful new 2024 scan.

The Friday Films will be made available through Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Vimeo—the link will be made available on this page starting at 12pm Mountain Time on Friday September 6.

From Dawn till Dusk will present a special livestream conversation on Tuesday September 10 between two iconic earthworks by Robert Smithson: from first light at Spiral Jetty, located  at the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah, and concluding with last light at Broken Circle/Spiral Hill located in Emmen in Netherlands. Learn more on our website.

We will continue on Friday the 13th with Nancy Holt’s film Breaking Ground: Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971/2011), which combines 16mm footage Holt shot with Smithson during the construction of the earthwork with material gathered for the 40th anniversary of the earthwork in 2011 to create a portrait of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill and its unique surroundings.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty [still] (1970)
16mm film
Color, sound
Duration: 35 minutes
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Archived News

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

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.

Chapter Nine of Tuesday Texts

Throughout February 2026, we are publishing the ninth 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. Developed as a tool for researchers at all stages, the Scholarly Text Program aims to publish two essays on each work, presenting differing opinions and approaches and drawing connections to topics that range from geology and ecology to poetry, architecture, public art, sculpture, drawing, film, philosophy, site, and

"Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles

What does it mean to notice how we see? "Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center at the Schindler House in Los Angeles offers an encounter where art and architecture shape perception together. This exhibition to brings Holt’s work into a responsive dialogue with the Schindler House, inviting visitors to experience art and architecture as partners in seeing.

Nancy Holt concrete poem on show in Paris at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles

Nancy Holt started making art in 1966, and her first works took the form of concrete poems: artworks testing the structure, content, and form of language. A key concrete poem, "The World Though a Circle," from 1972 is currently on show in the exhibition Deep Fields at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris until March 23, 2026.

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.