Author: Robert Smithson

Quotes

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

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

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

- 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

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

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

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

Objects in a park suggest static repose rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art .

Objects in a park suggest static repose rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art .

- Robert Smithson

I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation.

I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation.

- Robert Smithson

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