Robert Smithson Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us.”

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

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

“An emotion is suggested and demolished in one glance by certain words.”

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

“Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.”

“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.”

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

“Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.”

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