When a finished work of 20thcentury 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.

Quote by Robert Smithson

Topics: Robert Smithson Quotes

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.

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

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

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

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

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

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,...

Nature is never finished.

Nature is never finished.

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

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

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

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

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.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output 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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...