Robert Hughes Quotes

Australian critic, historian, and writer (1938–2012)

Robert Studley Forrest Hughes (28 July 1938 – 6 August 2012) was an Australian art critic, writer, and documentary broadcaster.

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Birth Name: Robert Studley Forrest Hughes

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The essential difference between a sculpture like Andre's Equivalent VIII, 1978, and any that had existed before in the past is that Andre's array of bricks depends not just partly, but entirely, on the museum for its context. A Rodin in a parking lot is still a misplaced Rodin; Andre's bricks in the same place can only be a pile of bricks. (p. 393)

With hindsight, one can perhaps see that unachievable projects were the right monuments to an ideal. Because they were not built, they could not be destroyed. (p. 92)

In the real world, mice do exist and they generally go about their business whether we see them or not. (p. 17)

If the making of the series had one repeated phrase that still echoes in my head, it was not heard on the soundtrack; the inexorable voice of Lorna Pegram, the producer, muttering: "It's a clever argument, Bob dear, but what are we supposed to be looking at?" (p. 7)

No original Gauguins were to be seen in Australia, for post-impressionism was officially thought to be the vulgar effusion of five-thumbed lunatics. (p. 24)

There's no geist like the Zeitgeist.