Concrete poetry was a big deal in the 1960s, even at the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, where Nancy Holt (1938–2014) was an assistant literary editor for a few years. Words could be objects. Words engage space just as sculpture does. “The world through a circle / Elements real and reflected / Concentrated, encompassed / The sky brought down …” go lines from a 1970 poem by Holt. Its title is a circle made of the letters: SUNMOONWATERSKYEARTHSTAR. Holt happened to be married to the artist Robert Smithson, and both were part of the Land Art and conceptual art movements of the 1960s and 70s. Both pioneered site-specific installations. But Holt was far more word driven. This heady retrospective presents her early concrete poems and the important 1974 video installation, Points of View. —L.J.
The Arts Intel Report
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
Nancy Holt: Points of View
When
Sept 24 – Nov 14, 2020
Where
Etc
Nancy Holt, “Points of View” (detail) 1974. Photo: Gwenn Thomas © Holt/ Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York.