Hannah Jurgens

Pd. 7

Compare/Contrast: Spiral Jetty and Falling Water

As opposed to how 2-dimensional works of art have to convey feeling through visual art

elements, artwork that co-exists with the nature surrounding it relies on much of its personal

impact to be conveyed through experience. This is the case for Frank Llloyd Wrights Falling

Water as well as Robert Smithsons Spiral Jetty. Falling Water, as in line with the artists

Transcendentalist beliefs, connects human life and nature seamlessly. One of the main points of

interest that made it so fascinating to viewers in the 1930s was how it gave off the illusion that

the water it was built near ran through the house rather than beside it. It incorporated the

environment with the river as well as rock in its design. It also utilized its elongated vistas to

have them pointing out towards the woods and used a surplus of glass to ensure that whoever

entered the house could see the outside often. Falling Water truly gave a new meaning to the

phrase Organic Architecture. While on a much smaller scale, Spiral Jetty does this too; its

advantage comes from the fact that the ground it was made on is like the Earths natural canvas

and the piece changes in line with the Earths changes whether it be change in time of day,

weather or season. The sculpture aspect is only part of the art. Both works were also influenced

by outside sources; to create Falling Water, Wright wanted to take elements from European

Modernism and enhance them due to his grudge against one of his English critics, and

Smithson spent weeks upon weeks learning about Utahs landscape, culture and history in

order for his to make Spiral Jetty.

Aside from different mediums being put into use (Falling Water is architecture while

Spiral Jetty would be classified more as sculpture), both pieces accomplish what they set out
to do through different means. While Falling Water is very complex and sets out to integrate

nature and architecture in almost every way, Spiral Jetty is shockingly simplistic- minimalistic,

even. It encaptures the concept of entropy without being so involved.