Robert Barry Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“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 -
“I liked the idea of the words floating in space and the space behind it moving all the time, ever changing.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
“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 -
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“I know where the mistakes are. Nothing is perfect and I understand that.”
-- Robert Barry -
“I try not to manipulate reality... What will happen, will happen. Let things be themselves.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
“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 -
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“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 -
“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 -
“Art was something that I was really interested in, probably more so than writing or anything else.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
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“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 -
“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 -
“Developing your own style became something very interesting, very important to me.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
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“I have a lot of ideas for art. And it is really - I don't really have time to do them all.”
-- Robert Barry -
“I just try things and whether people like it or if I find it successful or not, I just do it.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
“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 -
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“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 -
“I never ever approached a dealer. I have always been approached by dealers or curators or whatever.”
-- Robert Barry -
“I am an artist who works very well under pressure, in fact. I like to have deadlines.”
-- Robert Barry -
“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 -
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“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
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“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 -
“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
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