Author: Robert Smithson

Quotes

History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in museums, where they span everybody's own vacancy.

History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in museums, where they span everybody's own vacancy.

- Robert Smithson

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

- Robert Smithson

History is a facsimile of events held together by finally biographical information.

History is a facsimile of events held together by finally biographical information.

- Robert Smithson

Art history is less explosive than the rest of history, so it sinks faster into the pulverized regions of time.

Art history is less explosive than the rest of history, so it sinks faster into the pulverized regions of time.

- Robert Smithson

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future.

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future.

- Robert Smithson

Nature is never finished.

Nature is never finished.

- Robert Smithson

A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world.

A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world.

- Robert Smithson

A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of esthetic convalescence.

A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of esthetic convalescence.

- Robert Smithson

Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.

Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.

- Robert Smithson

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