Robert Barry
Robert Barry
Robert Barryis an American artist. Since 1967, Barry has produced non-material works of art, installations, and performance art using a variety of otherwise invisible media. In 1968, Robert Barry is quoted as saying "Nothing seems to me the most potent thing in the world."...
ProfessionPerformance Artist
Date of Birth9 March 1936
gone gallery fortunate
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.
breathing space littles
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.
important kind certain
I do like certain kinds of frames for work. That's important.
drawing people pieces
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.
wall 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.
reading writing trying
If I'm reading something and a word pops up, or I just catch it, I try to mark it off and then, later, write it down on a piece of paper and add it to my list.
tree way photograph
I always took photographs. I photographed a lot of trees, by the way, which is another image I used often in my work, the tree image.
thinking car people
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.
people fluidity saws
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.
teacher jobs fall
Teaching I realized took up a lot of my time. I was a kind of a teacher that spent time with students, spoke to them after class, tried to help them out. I'd talk with them personally about their work and try to get out of them what they were thinking about, forcing them to thinking seriously and not just falling back on all the ideas that they had picked up someplace. And so I took my job teaching very seriously and that - as a result, it took up a lot of time.
competition lost has-beens
I have been in competitions for commissions. I've won most and lost some. Mostly, I've won.
curator dealer
I never ever approached a dealer. I have always been approached by dealers or curators or whatever.
kind language realms
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.
space light giving
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.