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Leaning Strata
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Leaning Strata
Robert Smithson
 1968
 aluminum, paint


Leaning Strata is the visual manifestation of an extensive set of investigations Smithson was conducting during the mid-1960s, which included geology, astronomy, perspective, mapping, and the nature of time and matter. The title suggests a geological configuration. The stepping of the elements in the form, if continued according to the system established (i.e., moving at a regular rate away from the implied center), would conclude in a spiral. This is not unlike Smithson's elementary crystallographic structure, which attained its greatest scale in his earthwork Spiral Jetty (1970) in the Great Salt Lake in Utah.


Text Citation
Label text for Robert Smithson, Leaning Strata (1968), from the exhibition 100 Years of Sculpture: From the Pedestal to the Pixel, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, February 22-May 24, 1998.
Object Details
Dimensions:  overall 49.125 x 105 x 30 inches
Classification:  Sculptures; Sculpture
Owner:  Walker Art Center
Accession Number:  1985.761
Credit Line:  Donation of Virginia Dwan, 1985