Robert Smithson Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Artist, Past, Causes

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.11, Univ of California Press

  72 Copy quote

• Museums are tombs, and it looks like everything is turning into a museum.

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Museums, Looks

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.42, Univ of California Press

  46 Copy quote

• One's mind and the earth are in a constant state of erosion, mental rivers wear away abstract banks, brain waves undermine cliffs of thought, ideas decompose into stones of unknowing, and conceptual crystallizations break apart into deposits of gritty reason.

  Robert Smithson

  Erosion, Ideas, Rivers

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.100, Univ of California Press

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, World, Surface

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.154, Univ of California Press

  34 Copy quote

• Establish enigmas, not explanations.

  Robert Smithson

  Enigma, Explanation

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.63, Univ of California Press

  19 Copy quote

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

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Doe, Development

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  22 Copy quote

• Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

  Robert Smithson

  Art, Architecture, Output

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.154, Univ of California Press

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, Direct Effect, Elements

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  16 Copy quote

• The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality.

  Robert Smithson

  Memories, Past, Reality

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.156, Univ of California Press

  11 Copy quote

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

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Parks, Facts

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  16 Copy quote

• Nature is never finished.

  Robert Smithson

  Finished

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  16 Copy quote

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

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Together, Events

  3 Copy quote

• Photographs are the results of a diminution of solar energy, and the camera is an entropic machine for recording gradual loss of light.

  Robert Smithson

  Loss, Light, Cameras

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.373, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• One day the photograph is going to become even more important than it is now.... But I am not particularly an advocate of the photograph.

  Robert Smithson

  Important, One Day, Photograph

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.251, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Museums, Vacancy, May

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.41, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• Abstraction is everybody's zero but nobody's nought.

  Robert Smithson

  Zero, Artist, Abstraction

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.42, Univ of California Press

  10 Copy quote

• The museum spreads its surfaces everywhere, and becomes an untitled collection of generalizations that mobilize the eye.

  Robert Smithson

  Eye, Artist, Museums

  13 Copy quote

• Questions about form seem as hopelessly inadequate as questions about content.

  Robert Smithson

  Hopeless, Form, Seems

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.11, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

• Language should find itself in the physical world, and not end up locked in an idea in somebody's head

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Ideas, End Of The World

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

• Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art habit continues.

  Robert Smithson

  Art, Sculpture, Architecture

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.42, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

• Visiting a museum is a matter of going from void to void.

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Museums, Matter

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.41, Univ of California Press

  6 Copy quote

• Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got a hold of them. As a result, they end up supporting a cultural prison that is out of their control

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Facts, Holding On

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.154, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness.

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, National Parks, Nostalgia

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

  4 Copy quote

• Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition, rather than asking an artist to set his limits.

  Robert Smithson

  Art, Limits, Asking

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.154, Univ of California Press

  83 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, White, Space

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.154, Univ of California Press

  76 Copy quote

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