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

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

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

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

From the top of the quarry cliffs, one could see the New Jersey suburbs bordered...

From the top of the quarry cliffs, one could see the New Jersey suburbs bordered...

Nature is never finished.

Nature is never finished.

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

Language should be an ever developing procedure and not an isolated occurrence.

Language should be an ever developing procedure and not an isolated occurrence.

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...

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.

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...

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...

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Language thus becomes monumental because of the mutations of advertising.

Language thus becomes monumental because of the mutations of advertising.

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...