Since the 1979 publication of The Writings of Robert Smithson, Robert Smithson's significance as a spokesman for a generation of artists has been widely acknowledged and the importance of his thinking to contemporary artists and art critics continues to grow. In addition to a new introduction by Jack Flam, The Collected Writings includes previously unpublished essays by Smithson and gathers hard-to-find articles, interviews, and photographs. Together these provide a full picture of his wide-ranging views on art and culture.

This book is the first to bring together texts documenting the encounter between Western artists and writers and what has historically been called primitive art--the traditional, indigenous arts of Africa, Oceania, and North America. Beginning with the "discovery" of that art by European artists and writers early in the twentieth century, this anthology charts the evolving pictorial responses, artistic aspirations, aesthetic theories, and cultural debates that have developed from this encounter. Written by artists, literary figures, collectors, museum curators, and cultural critics, these...