A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world.

Quote by Robert Smithson

Topics: Robert Smithson Quotes

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...

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...

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

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...

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,...

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 operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of...

A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of...

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...

Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got...

Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got...

The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that...

The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that...

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...