Art Dirt Redux

Robert Smithson -Whitney Museum

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Robert Smithson at the Whitney is a great exhibition. The scope of the work is thrilling. You can see him take a variety of late sixties styles and synthesize them while forming his own unique vision. His site/non-site sculpture and photos are as fresh now as when they were first done. Even when working on a grand scale, Smithson seems to create a personal intimacy. You're not overwhelmed by the work but rather feel invited in. there's a level of zanyness in some of his works that tends to belie any pompous posturing. It's what is best about Americans. We can be disarmingly playful.