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 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...

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

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

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.