Robert Barry famous quotes

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

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

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

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

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

#Mistake #Perfect #Nothing Is Perfect

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

#Reality #Trying #Manipulate

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

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

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

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

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

#Art #Writing

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

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

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

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

#Interesting #Style #Important

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

#Night #Names #Guy

I have a lot of ideas for art. And it is really - I don't really have time to do them all.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Ideas

I just try things and whether people like it or if I find it successful or not, I just do it.
-- Robert Barry

#Successful #People #Trying

I am a very lucky artist in the sense that I have had all my life a lot of opportunities to do what I want to do.
-- Robert Barry

#Artist #Opportunity #Lucky

If somebody gives me a chance to do something, I am going to use that space, that time, that light, that whatever it is and try and work with it.
-- Robert Barry

#Light #Space #Giving

I am very generous with my dealers in terms of the art that they have of mine. They all have a very good selection of work that they can work with. And it is up to them to find the dealers. I don't interfere with their selling.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Selling #Very Good

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

#Curator #Dealer

I am an artist who works very well under pressure, in fact. I like to have deadlines.
-- Robert Barry

#Artist #Pressure #Facts

I work sometimes with dealers and sometimes people just come to me. A lot of the commissions, they just know me. They have seen something and they just approach me.
-- Robert Barry

#People #Sometimes #Approach

I work with deadlines. It is terrible to be an artist where you are just producing work and nobody gives a damn. Nobody wants to show it.
-- Robert Barry

#Artist #Giving #Want

I have never had a shortage of ideas for shows. I always just do them and the gallerists don't - they stopped long ago trying to tell me what I should show in their gallery. They just don't even do it. I show whatever I want to show. They are very happy and as far as I know, they have always been very pleased with whatever I have shown, even if it is nothing to sell.
-- Robert Barry

#Long Ago #Ideas #Trying

If you are operating in a certain way and you are thinking in a certain direction, suddenly opportunities arise. And if you are open to it, if you are not locked into your style too much or to what you think works.
-- Robert Barry

#Opportunity #Thinking #Style

Words have very potent meanings and people read them and they react to them personally. They are very suggestive in terms of your life and things like that.
-- Robert Barry

#People #Term

I consider drawings finished works of art, first of all. However, the ideas can be something that can be developed into something larger. I don't make so many drawings anymore since I'm working with language. I used to make more when I worked with sculptural things, especially the wire pieces.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Ideas #Drawing

I do make some drawings for wall pieces. I do work out some ideas for large-scale wall pieces where I have to organize words or get proportions right. I do keep them in my files. Not an exhibit or a show; just as part of my records, my archives.
-- Robert Barry

#Wall #Ideas #Drawing

The drawings that I show - the drawings that I present to people are finished works in themselves. They're meant to be thought of that way and not necessarily lead to larger pieces or anything like that. And that's the way I work now.
-- Robert Barry

#Drawing #People #Pieces

I do like certain kinds of frames for work. That's important.
-- Robert Barry

#Important #Kind #Certain

I'm fortunate in one respect; that I don't have a lot of work in my studio. Most of it's out, gone; either sold or in galleries. I work with a lot of galleries.
-- Robert Barry

#Gone #Gallery #Studios

And yes, there are things I want to keep, that I like around me - especially when there's very little left. I just want to keep those little bits of reminders of my past. There are certain drawings from the '60s; certain little paintings from the '60s that I keep.
-- Robert Barry

#Past #Drawing #Want

I have been in competitions for commissions. I've won most and lost some. Mostly, I've won.
-- Robert Barry

#Competition #Lost #Has Beens

After I did the drawings of trees combining them with words, I started doing - I did that for a very short time. Then it kind of - that sort of evolved into just showing the branches of a tree coming down into the trunk and then going into the root system. So I showed both the branches and the roots of a tree, which were about equal. There is as much going on under the ground as is going on above the ground, which you can see.
-- Robert Barry

#Roots #Drawing #Tree

The big thing is I try not to repeat.
-- Robert Barry

#Trying #Bigs #Repeats

I think you say the word in your mind anyway, you know. When you look at a word, you say it.
-- Robert Barry

#Thinking #Mind #Looks

And style, by the way, is a very important thing. It is like your signature, your handwriting or it is something that you develop that is your way of presenting yourself and also your way of looking at what art - of how to make art.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Style #Important

I wanted my style to be very recognizable.
-- Robert Barry

#Style #Wanted

And when you are operating within your style, which is your world, which you operate in, then it also would make sense to you. Now, whether it makes sense to anybody outside is besides the point really. You just do it and then you find that other people kind of begin to relate to it and allow themselves to get into your way of thinking about things.
-- Robert Barry

#Thinking #People #Style

I am very easy. I like to have my work out. I am not restrictive about any of that. It is the collectors that are possessive, not me, not me.
-- Robert Barry

#Work Out #Easy #Possessive

The only problems I sometimes have is if I ask for a piece for a group show, if I ask for a piece - I would like to put it into a show, sometimes the collectors get possessive about it and don't want to let something happen. Say you get full credit, you know. You give them your name, the catalog and it always enhances the value of the piece, you know, the more shows it is in, blah, blah, blah.
-- Robert Barry

#Names #Giving #Groups

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

#Art #Thinking #Years

The space between things is important to me. The projections, that darkness between the words or the images is very important.
-- Robert Barry

#Space #Darkness #Important

I mean, part of the justification for art is art history, the fact that you're part of this tradition. You can't really operate outside of it. So looking for what this work is really about, if I look at Velázquez, if I look at Las Meninas or The Tapestry Weavers [1657] or something and really study it and try to figure out what that painting is really about, then I find relationships between what I'm trying to do and what he was doing.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Mean #Trying

I'm always looking for relations between my work and the old masters.
-- Robert Barry

#Masters #Relation

I'm not a person - and my wife also - we don't really go to the beach or anything like that. We go to cities.
-- Robert Barry

#Beach #Cities #Wife

The first place I try to go when I have free time is the museums. I'm a big museum person.
-- Robert Barry

#Museums #Trying #Firsts

I was at one point thinking about being an art historian, when I was in school. And not being an artist, but I decided I was going to be an artist but I'm really mad for art history and the masters mostly.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #School #Thinking

I'm getting more and more into Chinese art and Japanese, some of those scroll paintings are amazing. You follow the change of the seasons. It's really something. These guys were great masters and of course the use of space.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Space #Guy

I don't have a dream project. I don't really think in those terms, to tell you the truth.
-- Robert Barry

#Dream #Thinking #Projects

I make my own surprises and I'm always surprised to see what I do, to see it when it's finished and the biggest challenge is once I finish it, it's not a failure. It's not a flop.
-- Robert Barry

#Challenges #Surprise #My Own

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

#Mean #Done #Worst

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

Everybody is always satisfied with what I do.
-- Robert Barry

#Satisfied

I may have a lot of political opinions but it doesn't necessarily come into my work. I keep the two worlds separate.
-- Robert Barry

#Political Opinions #Two #World

I like challenge. I like to be put into a situation which I haven't done before. Something new presents itself and I see if I can somehow finagle it into making a work of art out of it.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Challenges #Done

I make videos which are works of art in themselves which have nothing to do with Hollywood movies or anything along those lines and I like videos because they deal with light and dark and time and change and they're just another kind of medium that I can get into and work with when I choose to other than, say, doing something on the wall or a window.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Wall #Dark

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

I never stop thinking about what I have to do. Let's put it that way. The only thing that takes me out of that is probably a film. I watch a lot of movies.
-- Robert Barry

#Thinking #Watches #Way

I like a lot of good European films, good - anything really. I'm a big fan of Netflix and I get films from them all the time. If I hear about something that I don't know, that I haven't seen, forgot about, I immediately jot it down and add it to my Netflix list or if there's a film that's available that I haven't seen for many years, I get that.
-- Robert Barry

#Years #Fans #Netflix

Normally my head is always filled with art ideas and things that I have to do, deadlines that I have to meet.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Ideas #Deadline

I like working late at night and then going into the house and sitting down and watching a movie and then going to sleep.
-- Robert Barry

#Sleep #Night #House

I shoot a lot of video, first of all, whatever I think is interesting, just my travels; hard to say why. If something looks good, I take a picture or try to shoot it.
-- Robert Barry

#Thinking #Interesting #Trying

I don't really use still photography very much anymore except to document my work.
-- Robert Barry

#Photography #Use #Stills

I shoot in black and white, sometimes color, sometimes if it looks good I shoot out the window of the airplanes or whatever, anything that - sometimes I secretly take secret photos, shoot video of people on the plane if it's not too crowded. I don't know, whatever comes up.
-- Robert Barry

#Airplane #Black And White #Color

I like contrasting between black and white and color.
-- Robert Barry

#Black And White #Color #White

Whatever came out came out. That was it. That's what you live with. If you don't like it, that's your problem.
-- Robert Barry

#Problem #Ifs

My videos rarely run longer than 20 minutes. They're made for private viewing in your home or specifically either that or for a gallery situation where you sit and look.
-- Robert Barry

#Running #Home #Video

I didn't make videos for a long time because I hated the look of TV sets.
-- Robert Barry

#Long #Video #Looks

I usually, if I give a talk, I don't usually prepare anything. I just say - you know, I may stop talking by showing some video or slides of what I do but mainly I try to respond to what problems people have with my work.
-- Robert Barry

#Talking #People #Giving

I'm used to being the background. I'm used to having work that only lasts for a little while. I'm used to being - working in the real world, where real things are.
-- Robert Barry

#Real #World #Littles

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 #Parent #My Family

How does any idea come to your mind? I don't know.
-- Robert Barry

#Ideas #Mind #Doe

I had always spoken about the space between the art object and the person looking at it as this dynamic space, which I referred to over and over. So the idea of the space between two things was sort of interesting to me.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Space #Ideas

The idea of, say, the compressed space between the floor and the object hanging over it and then the long space between the object and the ceiling was a kind of interesting idea for me - the idea of compressing and expanding. That was an idea that I worked with, which you could only do sculpturally. You can't really do with a painting on the wall.
-- Robert Barry

#Wall #Space #Ideas

Any artwork is part of something larger, grander and, you know, the situation that it's in is very important.
-- Robert Barry

#Important #Artwork #Situation

So it sort of dawned on me that you have to build into your work the fact that it's going to be shown in different kinds of places and different kinds of light. And the fact that the surroundings and where you're going to be shown is always changing, so that should really not affect the meaning of the work. It should be part of what the work is about.
-- Robert Barry

#Light #Different #Facts

reaking up the space and using the space, using the length of the space, the height of it, whatever, the light, all of those things. It's something that you have to kind of slowly recognize in your work and develop over years of making work.
-- Robert Barry

#Light #Years #Space

But if I did read, say, [Maurice] Merleau-Ponty, for instance, it always seemed to me that the parts that I understood in what he was talking about - and I read him because - well, he wrote a book, well, the Phenomenology of Perception [New York: Humanities Press, 1962]. And it seemed to me that perception had a lot do with how we take in art.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #New York #Book

The idea of the culture that you live in determining meaning in your art, though, is a very important aspect of what art would be about. But that had more to do with the kind of general understanding of what the hell you're doing, you know.
-- Robert Barry

#Art #Ideas #Understanding

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

#Memories #Grandparent #Grandfather

ne thing you have to develop as an artist is a confidence in what you're doing and that you're right about it.
-- Robert Barry

#Artist

I relied mainly on other artists, who I think are smarter than critics, any critics or curators or anybody like that. They really know.
-- Robert Barry

#Artist #Thinking #Curator

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

#Art #Want #Should

Agnes Martin is a big influence in my work actually, when I first saw her, these fine grids.
-- Robert Barry

#Saws #Firsts #Influence

I've always said my biggest influence is my, just, the last work I did, the last piece I made.
-- Robert Barry

#Pieces #Lasts #Influence

I made films from the - when I was a little kid, my father bought me a movie camera. I just wanted to. I don't know how. You just learn, you just do it. You just do it.
-- Robert Barry

#Father #Kids #Cameras

I was good at art - always good at art.
-- Robert Barry

#Art

I think my parents - my parents were very hands-off, quite liberal in terms of their - they really - they did encourage me, but they never really pushed me into anything, really.
-- Robert Barry

#Thinking #Hands #Parent

I was also a good writer, by the way. My, you know, my English teacher and writing teacher loved my writing. You know, I wrote short stories and things like that. And they liked them very much.
-- Robert Barry

#Teacher #Writing #Stories

I was also very interested in music. I used to hang out in jazz joints, you know, the Five Spot and so forth when I was, you know, a senior, really, when I was a little bit older. And I thought, well, maybe I could, you know, work with music. I can't play at all.
-- Robert Barry

#Senior #Play #Joints

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

#Rocks #Rock And Roll #Guy

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

#Jobs #Part Time #Part Time Jobs

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

#School #College #Trouble

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

#Moving #Style #Want

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

#Nuts

I think I feel much more at home in studio.
-- Robert Barry

#Home #Thinking #Feels

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

#Art #Way #Needed