Bar None (1967) by Nancy Holt is a photographic composite of two closely related images. The work depicts Robert Smithson lying on the concrete ground of what could be a rooftop or parking lot, shown from two slightly shifting viewpoints: in the image on the left he is viewed through railings, while the image on the right looks down on him from just above the bars of the barrier. The subtle shifts in distance and framing point to the subjective processes of perception. Bar None investigates how vision is structured, repeated, and destabilized, reflecting Holt’s early interest in systems of seeing and spatial awareness.

The precise location of the photographs has not been conclusively identified and remains the subject of ongoing research by the Foundation. The images were taken in 1967 while Smithson was developing the magazine work Ultramoderne, published in the September/October 1967 issue of Arts Magazine. In the article, he looks to the architecture of the 1930s, particularly the apartment buildings along Central Park West in New York City.

The images associated with this study are found across seven rolls of black-and-white Kodak 126 film, showing both the architecture under study and Holt and Smithson within these “ultraist” spaces. Holt and Smithson often shared the camera when making works on their tours and trips. In this sequence, Holt can be seen photographed by Smithson in two images, and Smithson by Holt in a further two.

Holt developed these two images into the composite Bar None in the early 2010s, choosing to output the work as an inkjet print and specifying that it should always be dated to the year in which the images were taken.