I am good in the fact that most of my reviews have been very positive really. I get pretty good reviews. There have been some that aren't - critical. I think they are extremely - the people that wrote them really don't understand what they are looking at quite frankly or have a very preconceived notion of what conceptual art should be or where I am at or the fact that I may change what I have done from what I did 20 years ago. But there is always some reason that they just sort of get it wrong. And so it certainly doesn't affect my work.

Robert Barry

I try not to manipulate reality... What will happen, will happen. Let things be themselves.

Robert Barry

manipulate trying reality

I liked the idea of the words floating in space and the space behind it moving all the time, ever changing.

Robert Barry

space ideas moving

I know where the mistakes are. Nothing is perfect and I understand that.

Robert Barry

nothing-is-perfect perfect mistake

The words represent ideas first of all. That is something you have to understand. I mean, it is not just an object, but it is an object with a history and it is loaded with all kinds of implications and ideas. They exist in the world in a very special way. So they kind of represent some aspect of the world that we perceive, as do photographs, as do drawings of trees or whatever. And they are not a one to one. They are not the world, but they kind of refer to the world and they also exist in the world.

Robert Barry

drawing mean ideas

I like the work hanging free in the frame. I don't like too much frame around it but I like a little breathing space around the piece.

Robert Barry

breathing-space pieces littles

Art was something that I was really interested in, probably more so than writing or anything else.

Robert Barry

writing art

By being critical, you also develop your own style of what you like, what direction you want to move.

Robert Barry

style want moving

Developing your own style became something very interesting, very important to me.

Robert Barry

style important interesting

I was always - I was a movie nut. I lived in the movies, really.

Robert Barry

nuts

I really wasn't about to get a Ph.D. in art history, you know, which you'd absolutely needed. And that was not something I wanted. And I loved art history, but not that way.

Robert Barry

needed way art

I think I feel much more at home in studio.

Robert Barry

home feels thinking

So I never had trouble getting work or working or doing - I always worked. I worked when I went to college. I worked after school.

Robert Barry

trouble college school

I had always worked. I always had part-time jobs.

Robert Barry

part-time-jobs part-time jobs

I was good at art - always good at art.

Robert Barry

art

I went to Our Lady of Mercy, parochial school and I started Fordham Prep, but that only lasted about a year and then I - to me, it was like going to some kind of concentration camp. I was not very happy. And I only went there because that's where my brother went, really.

Robert Barry

brother years school

I didn't know my grandparents. They were - my grandfather - my maternal grandfather died when I was five. I have very little memory of him. All my other grandparents were dead by the time I was of any age to remember anything.

Robert Barry

grandparent grandfather memories

I have to say, I'm not someone who's really big into my family history - never really was very curious about it. The only thing I know about it is what I picked up from my aunts and parents.

Robert Barry

aunt my-family parent

I loved music. Music was a big thing and so I started collecting records. I had a large collection of jazz records and that was something else I used to listen to. At night, there was a - what the heck was his name? There was a famous - Jazzbo Collins, I used to listen to at night, and some other guys.

Robert Barry

guy names night

I was never that big a rock-and-roll, rock guy. I really preferred jazz, you know, that kind of thing.

Robert Barry

rock-and-roll rocks guy

I never ever approached a dealer. I have always been approached by dealers or curators or whatever.

Robert Barry

curator dealer