Tear
In this collaged painting from 1963 titled Tear, Robert Smithson creates an otherworldly imagined landscape. Below a vibrant green sky looms a large landmass composed of energetic dark painted lines that mimic plant forms with bold splashes of red, pink, purple, and orange. In the sky above, eight collaged eyes float suspended, staring back at the viewer. Beneath each eye the word “tear” cascades down from the tear duct in the corner of each eye. In this collage we see Smithson’s expressive mark making coupled with his interests in the relationship between language and landscape.