Robert Smithson (Passaic, New Jersey, 1938-1973) was one of the most revolutionary artists of the twentieth century. His great work, Spiral Jetty (Coil spring), built in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, contains the spirit of some of the greatest monuments of past civilizations, while is contemporary in concept and execution. Smithson was a prolific and original writer, whose views profoundly affected the course of American contemporary art.