Robert Smithson was an American artist known for his land art works. His practice often involved large-scale land transformations and interactions with the natural environment, with iconic pieces such as 'Spiral Jetty' and 'Land Art'. Smithson's art challenged the boundaries of traditional art media and sparked widespread discussions about the relationship between art, nature, and humanity.
Related Quotes
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art habit continues.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“For many artists the universe is expanding; for some it is contracting.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Establish enigmas, not explanations.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“As long as cameras are around no artist will be free of bewilderment.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Abstraction is everybody's zero but nobody's nought.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Language should be an ever developing procedure and not an isolated occurrence.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Visiting a museum is a matter of going from void to void.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Museums are tombs, and it looks like everything is turning into a museum.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“The memory of what is not may be better than the amnesia of what is.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Banal words function as a feeble phenomena that fall into their own mental bogs of meaning.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“An emotion is suggested and demolished in one glance by certain words.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“History is a facsimile of events held together by finally biographical information.”
“Mistakes and dead-ends often mean more to these artists than any proven problem”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Language thus becomes monumental because of the mutations of advertising”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Questions about form seem as hopelessly inadequate as questions about content.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
“Words for mental processes are all derived from physical things.”
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings
Source: Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings