Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

A 1970 work by Robert Smithson. Smithson piled earth atop an old woodshed on the campus of Kent State University until the center beam cracked.

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

A 1970 work by Robert Smithson. Smithson piled earth atop an old woodshed on the campus of Kent State University until the center beam cracked.

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

A 1970 work by Robert Smithson. Smithson piled earth atop an old woodshed on the campus of Kent State University until the center beam cracked.

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

A 1970 work by Robert Smithson. Smithson piled earth atop an old woodshed on the campus of Kent State University until the center beam cracked.

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Nancy Holt, date unknown

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

a dilapidated woodshed with earth piled on the right wall and roof has been taken over by the surrounding plants

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Nancy Holt, date unknown

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Nancy Holt, date unknown

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

a dilapidated woodshed with earth piled on the right wall and roof has been taken over by the surrounding plants

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Nancy Holt, date unknown

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Photographer and date unknown

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

A woman stands next to a dilapidated woodshed with earth piled on the right wall and roof has been taken over by the surrounding plants

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA

Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth

Photograph: Photographer and date unknown

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

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)
Marker on black and white photograph
10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson, Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2025
Photograph: Elon Schoenholz

Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2025
Photograph: Elon Schoenholz

Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson, Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2025 featuring a large excavator dumping dirt onto a shed by Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970)
Marker on black and white photograph
10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson, Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2025
Photograph: Elon Schoenholz

Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2025
Photograph: Elon Schoenholz

1969—1970

Partially Buried Woodshed

Robert Smithson
1970
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA
Woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth
18 x 10 x 45 ft. (5.5 x 3 x 13.7 m)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

This work fulfilled Smithson’s long-held desire to bury a building and allow for its decomposition. The abandoned woodshed was already in existence on the Kent State campus in Ohio. Smithson piled earth atop the structure until the center beam cracked. After the infamous shooting of unarmed student protestors by the National Guard, someone anonymously painted “MAY 4 KENT 70” on a horizontal beam in commemoration. The structure was partially burned down in 1975, causing further collapse. At present, all that remains of the piece is the concrete foundation and a large mound of dirt. Smithson made a series of drawings alongside this work.

Related Info

1969—1970
a truck dumping black asphalt onto an earthen hillside
Asphalt Rundown
Robert Smithson
1969
1969—1970

The first of Robert Smithson’s major earthworks conceived to exist exclusively outdoors, Asphalt Rundown (1969) demonstrates what Smithson called the “crystalline structure of time.” He argued that time does not pass so much as it builds upon itself. In October 1969, Smithson poured a truckload of hot asphalt down a steep embankment in a quarry outside Rome. As the asphalt flowed downhill, it cooled and hardened. The resulting sculpture can be seen as time frozen mid-flow, or as yet another sedimentary layer in the infinite accumulation of time.

1969—1970
thick orange glue running down a muddy hillside
Glue Pour
Robert Smithson
1969
1969—1970

In 1969 Smithson started working with temporal sculptures made from gravitational flows and pours, thinking through these alluvial ideas in drawings. For Smithson, landscape and its inhabitants were always undergoing change. The first realized flow was Asphalt Rundown (1969, Rome), and the last, Partially Buried Woodshed (1970), took place on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. 

See Also