Robert Barry
Robert Barry was born in 1936 in New York where he lives and works.
He studied and graduated from Hunter College, The City University of New York, in Fine Arts, Master of Arts,
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”.
Barry’s work focuses on escaping the previously known physical limits of the art object in order to express the unknown or unperceived.
Transcending the physical limitations of space and material, he has employed radio waves as medium, and performance, installation, and attempted telepathy as technique, challenging what would be accepted as “typical” artistic practice or experience. For his word list installations, Barry imprints capitalized words directly on walls or surfaces to evoke narrative and inspire contemplation. Barry encourages free association of meaning to his work.
Major nonvisible works from his early period include Carrier Wave, in which Barry used the carrier waves of a radio station for a prescribed length of time “not as a means of transmitting information, but rather as an object.”, Radiation Piece, and Inert Gas Piece, in which Barry opened various containers of inert gases in different settings before groups of spectators, such as a canister of helium released in a desert.
When asked about his piece for exhibition “Prospect ’69,” his response was “The piece consists of the ideas that people will have from reading this interview… The piece in its entirety is unknowable because it exists in the mind of so many people. Each person can really know that part which is in his own mind”.
Barry’s work has been shown in international events such as the Paris Biennale (1971), Documenta, Kassel (1972), and the Venice Biennale (1972).
Barry is included in the permanent collections of renowned museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Musée National D’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Robert Barry was born in 1936 in New York where he lives and works.
He studied and graduated from Hunter College, The City University of New York, in Fine Arts, Master of Arts,
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”.
Barry’s work focuses on escaping the previously known physical limits of the art object in order to express the unknown or unperceived.
Transcending the physical limitations of space and material, he has employed radio waves as medium, and performance, installation, and attempted telepathy as technique, challenging what would be accepted as “typical” artistic practice or experience. For his word list installations, Barry imprints capitalized words directly on walls or surfaces to evoke narrative and inspire contemplation. Barry encourages free association of meaning to his work.
Major nonvisible works from his early period include Carrier Wave, in which Barry used the carrier waves of a radio station for a prescribed length of time “not as a means of transmitting information, but rather as an object.”, Radiation Piece, and Inert Gas Piece, in which Barry opened various containers of inert gases in different settings before groups of spectators, such as a canister of helium released in a desert.
When asked about his piece for exhibition “Prospect ’69,” his response was “The piece consists of the ideas that people will have from reading this interview… The piece in its entirety is unknowable because it exists in the mind of so many people. Each person can really know that part which is in his own mind”.
Barry’s work has been shown in international events such as the Paris Biennale (1971), Documenta, Kassel (1972), and the Venice Biennale (1972).
Barry is included in the permanent collections of renowned museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Musée National D’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
- Untitled, 2018vinyl letters on glass
site specific - Untitled, 2018vinyl letters on glass
site specific - Silver Word List (Doubt…Believe), 2012vinyl letters, 12 words, installation for wall and floor
Variable dimensions - Mirrorpiece with multicolored words, 2011Mirror
100×100 cm - Forever, 2014single channel video,
7'
Edition 1/3 - Untitled, 2018acrylic paint on wood
30,5×30,5 cm each - Untitled, 2018acrylic on canvas
30×30 cm each - Untitled, 2018acrylic paint on canvas
51,5×51,5 cm
each - Mirror Diptych with Multicolored Words, 2011Mirror with vinyl letters, diptych
100×100 cm each - Untitled, 2018acrylic on canvas
122×122 cm each - Mirror Diptych, 2005Sandblasted and reflecting mirror, diptych
100×100 cm each - It is released, 1972typewriter ink on paper, three elements
- Black Mirrorpiece with Multicolored Words, 2011black mirror
100×100 cm - Silver Word List, Installation for wall and floor, variable dimension_vinyl letters, 6 words, installation for wall and floor
Variable dimensions - Cobalt Blue Word List, 2012floorpiece with six words
20 cm each letter - Incomplete…, 2014Silver vinyl letters on wood
45,8×61×4 cm - Becoming, anything, needed, …, 2015vinyl letters on wood, 8 words
61×45,8×4 cm - Untitled, 2005colored pencil on paper
25×35 cm - Untitled, 2005colored pencil on paper
25×35 cm - Study for 2 part string installation, 1968ink on graph paper
21,5×28 cm - It is released statement, 1972ink on paper
29,7×21 cm - Blue Triptych, 2012Blue mirror, triptych
50×50 cm each