Robert Smithson created Spiral Jetty, a large earthwork extending into Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Smithson built Spiral Jetty in 1970 at Rozel Point on the lake’s northeastern shore. The spiral consists of mud, precipitated salt crystals, and basalt rocks, forming a coil that projects from the shoreline into the water. Its shape is visible from the air and changes dramatically as lake levels rise and fall.
The work is a landmark of Land art, a movement that moved sculpture beyond galleries and traditional pedestals. Smithson chose a remote landscape and treated geology, erosion, water, and time as active parts of the artwork.
Spiral Jetty is not permanently visible in the same condition. It was submerged for years when the Great Salt Lake rose, then re-emerged during drought-related lower water levels. Photographs and films preserve its appearance at different moments, while the original site remains part of the work’s meaning.