People familiar with Robert Smithson’s iconic Spiral Jetty may be surprised by these small assemblages and works on paper made during the early ’60s, when the artist was just 22. Wacky, futuristic and a bit outrageous, they evince a young man’s fascination with pop culture—especially pornography, represented here by penciled outlines of cheesecake and beefcake models. Populating a series of drawings, they surround centrally placed images—movie stills, abstract doodles—like Baroque putti cavorting in a ceiling fresco.
A voracious consumer of cinema and science fiction, Smithson was a polymath whose wandering interests are also reflected in these works. They seem united by some idea of culture as an animating energy field, with lightning bolts crackling throughout the drawings and actual electrical capacitors incorporated into reliefs. Another piece, a sort of tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, contains a crucifix as well as tiny photos of period movie stars, suggesting another level of wattage. Yoda might describe what Smithson was after as “The Force,” which would probably please the sci-fi fan in the artist.