Robert Barry Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think words speak to us even though they may be written on a wall. So we hear them in our mind. We say it to ourselves. But they are also visual things. You draw them. They are designed. They are colored. They have a certain size. I put them in a certain place. So they are objects that have to be - artistic decisions have to be made in terms of the color and the size and the line and whatever.

  Robert Barry

  Wall, Thinking, Color

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Barry

  Moving, Ideas, Space

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• A text makes the word more specific. It really kind of defines it within the context in which it is being used. If it is just taken out of a context and presented as a sort of object, which is what - you know, which is a contemporary art idea, you know. It is like an old surrealist idea or an old cubist idea to take something out of context and put it in a completely different context. And it sort of gives it a different meaning and creates another world, another kind of world in which we enter.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Taken, Ideas

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  5 Copy quote

• And we live in a kind of realm of language and words and so forth. So we can sort of relate to them. They don't exist without us. We create words.

  Robert Barry

  Language, Kind, Realms

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Barry

  Mistake, Perfect, Nothing Is Perfect

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  9 Copy quote

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

  Robert Barry

  Reality, Trying, Manipulate

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Mean, Ideas, Drawing

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  6 Copy quote

• Everybody is always satisfied with what I do.

  Robert Barry

  Satisfied

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  6 Copy quote

• If you want to know about what's good in art, you should talk to an artist.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Want, Should

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I am always producing work, but there is always a sort of deadline where you have to finish work. I don't do it for a show. In other words, I am not like a fashion designer where I have a, you know - I have to put out the full line or I have to put out the summer line like that.

  Robert Barry

  Summer, Fashion, Lines

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• There's a kind of poetic aspect to inert gas. And remember, first of all, they were completely unknown a hundred years earlier. We just didn't know about them. And then when they were discovered in the atmosphere, the idea that this is a material that would breathe in and exhale and becomes part of us for a while made it even more intriguing. The names, the Greek names, are interesting, too - if you translate neon, xenon and so forth are kind of interesting.

  Robert Barry

  Xenon, Years, Names

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  8 Copy quote

• I took art courses, only in the sense that I was able to - I took art classes, which were fun, which I liked, but it was a - just a kind of a general education that I got, a regular academic - academic diploma, but I kind of had the feeling that art was something that I really liked the most but I wasn't really sure that that was it.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Fun, Class

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Barry

  Art, Writing

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• Most of the criticism of my work was pretty good, but occasionally it would not be. And I just sort of felt that they absolutely didn't get what I was doing. It was their limitations on what they thought art should be or what they thought my work should be in relation to earlier work or whatever.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Criticism, Should

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• 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, School, Years

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Barry

  Interesting, Style, Important

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I really kind of liked the fluidity and not really being tied down. I saw the kind of people that were tenured and what happened to them there and I thought it was kind of death, really.

  Robert Barry

  People, Fluidity, Saws

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• You know, there are some people who just don't - that cannot get comfortable behind the wheel of a car and always sort of think they're going to kill somebody.

  Robert Barry

  Thinking, People, Car

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• People who look at art don't really - don't go with the artist. They don't sort of accept what he or she has done and kind of go with it. There are always - either there's too much color or not enough color, either it's not conceptual enough or it's too conceptual. In other words, most criticism isn't what the viewer expected that it would do based on what they think you have done and that's good as far as I'm concerned.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Thinking, Color

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I was a guest at CalArts. John Baldessari invited me out a few times. I've been there. I've been in Pasadena, taught out at Boulder, University of Colorado. And I've taught in Europe. I've lectured and taught. I've taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nigne [sp]. I was there for a couple of weeks, I was there. I've taught all over - in Switzerland, Germany.

  Robert Barry

  Art, Couple, Europe

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• A word refers to something in the real world and so, in a way, does a photo. It's not the thing itself, but it's a kind of suggestion of where you might look for that thing.

  Robert Barry

  Real, Might, Way

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I'm my own worst critic. I mean, I know what's wrong with everything that I've done.

  Robert Barry

  Mean, Done, Worst

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I prefer music but sometimes if there's on talk radio - someone might be on that I like. I listen to the old - to "Air America," down at the - liberal talk shows and things like that I find kind of nice, their criticizing the conservatives. I find that quite relaxing, entertaining, but music, a lot of music.

  Robert Barry

  Nice, Air, America

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

• I try to create a kind of dynamic thing that hopefully some people will become interested in. And what they do with it after that is sort of up to them. But it's a specific item, it's a specific thing that I've done. And what they do with it is their problem.

  Robert Barry

  People, Trying, Done

  Source: www.aaa.si.edu

  4 Copy quote

Page 1 of 6

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin