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

Quote by Robert Smithson

Topics: Robert Smithson Quotes

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

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

Nature is never finished.

Nature is never finished.

When a finished work of 20thcentury sculpture is placed in an 18th-century garden, it is...

When a finished work of 20thcentury sculpture is placed in an 18th-century garden, it is...

Mistakes and dead-ends often mean more to these artists than any proven problem.

Mistakes and dead-ends often mean more to these artists than any proven problem.

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments...

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments...

Language should find itself in the physical world, and not end up locked in an...

Language should find itself in the physical world, and not end up locked in an...

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

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

A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a...

A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a...

Banal words function as a feeble phenomena that fall into their own mental bogs of...

Banal words function as a feeble phenomena that fall into their own mental bogs of...

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

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

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

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

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

I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements...

I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements...

Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition,...

Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition,...

History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in...

History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in...

The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for...

The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for...

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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