The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness. Robert Smithson More Quotes by Robert Smithson More Quotes From Robert Smithson Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future Robert Smithson causes artist past Museums are tombs, and it looks like everything is turning into a museum. Robert Smithson artist museums looks One's mind and the earth are in a constant state of erosion, mental rivers wear away abstract banks, brain waves undermine cliffs of thought, ideas decompose into stones of unknowing, and conceptual crystallizations break apart into deposits of gritty reason. Robert Smithson erosion rivers ideas A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world. Robert Smithson surface world art Establish enigmas, not explanations. Robert Smithson enigma explanation Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development. Robert Smithson development artist doe Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is. Robert Smithson output architecture art I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation. Robert Smithson direct-effect elements art The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality. Robert Smithson memories reality past Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal. Robert Smithson parks artist facts Nature is never finished. Robert Smithson finished History is a facsimile of events held together by finally biographical information. Robert Smithson events artist together Photographs are the results of a diminution of solar energy, and the camera is an entropic machine for recording gradual loss of light. Robert Smithson cameras light loss One day the photograph is going to become even more important than it is now.... But I am not particularly an advocate of the photograph. Robert Smithson one-day important photograph History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in museums, where they span everybody's own vacancy Robert Smithson vacancy may museums Abstraction is everybody's zero but nobody's nought. Robert Smithson abstraction zero artist The museum spreads its surfaces everywhere, and becomes an untitled collection of generalizations that mobilize the eye. Robert Smithson eye artist museums Questions about form seem as hopelessly inadequate as questions about content. Robert Smithson hopeless form seems Language should find itself in the physical world, and not end up locked in an idea in somebody's head Robert Smithson end-of-the-world artist ideas Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art habit continues. Robert Smithson sculpture architecture art
