Author: Robert Smithson

Quotes

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

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

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

- 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

Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal.

Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal.

- 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

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

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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