Robert Barry – The Defining of It…

Why It Matters

Barry's practice redefines materiality in art, offering a sustainable alternative to object‑driven markets, and the new volume documents this paradigm shift for scholars, curators and collectors.

Key Takeaways

• Robert Barry's shift from minimalism to conceptual art redefined materiality.
• His monofilament installations emphasize invisible, site‑specific artistic presence.
• The new book combines Barry's designs with scholarly research and archives.
• Collaboration includes notable scholars like Terry Smith and artists such as Torin.
• Barry's work challenges art market by prioritizing immaterial, ecological concepts.

Summary

The evening marked the launch of a richly illustrated volume on Robert Barry, the 90‑year‑old pioneer whose work bridges minimalism and conceptual art. Hosted by the research forum, the event featured introductions from leading scholars—including Terry Smith, Slade Professor at Cambridge—and artists who have long collaborated with Barry, underscoring the book’s blend of academic rigor and the artist’s own design contributions.

The talk traced Barry’s radical transition in the late 1960s from grid‑based paintings to site‑specific, immaterial installations. By stripping away traditional surfaces and employing monofilament, wire and invisible threads, he turned space itself into the artwork, foregrounding language, radiation and environmental context over visual objecthood. This “rematerialization” challenged the prevailing notion that art must be a tangible commodity.

Key moments highlighted Barry’s 1968 Windham College project, where 100 yards of woven iron cord linked two new buildings, and his 1971 letter to Lucy Leipard documenting the evolution from spot paintings to edge works. Quotations from Lawrence Winner and Lucas Webber emphasized that dematerialization is a misnomer—art becomes a presentation of time and space rather than a permanent object—reinforcing Barry’s ecological stance against market‑driven production.

The book, a collaborative effort between Barry, Matthew Copeland and a network of scholars, not only archives these interventions but also signals a broader shift toward sustainable, concept‑driven practice. By foregrounding immateriality, Barry’s legacy invites contemporary artists, curators and collectors to reconsider value beyond the physical object, aligning artistic innovation with ecological responsibility.

Original Description

Join author Mathieu Copeland for a conversation with Professor Sarah Wilson to mark the launch of Copeland’s new book, Robert Barry – The Defining of It…, the first comprehensive monograph to explore the complete body of work by one of contemporary art’s most influential figures. Spanning Barry’s formative years as a student of Robert Motherwell and later Tony Smith at Hunter College to his pivotal role in shaping two major artistic revolutions – Minimal and Conceptual Art – this landmark publication offers an unprecedented look at the artist’s evolution and legacy. Realised in close collaboration with the artist and published by König, this book centres on an extensive text by Mathieu Copeland. Alongside this comprehensive and critical analysis, the publication brings together a wide-ranging selection of largely unpublished images drawn from international collections and the artist’s own archives.

Robert Barry was born in 1936 in New York City and lives in New Jersey. His works was included in major exhibitions such as Lawrence Alloway’s Systemic Painting (1966), Harald Szeemann’s When Attitudes Become Form (1969), and Documenta V, VI, and VII in Kassel (1972, 1977, and 1982), and the subject of numerous solo presentations, including at the Tate Gallery, London (1972); the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1974); the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1977); the Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco (1978); the Renaissance Society, Chicago (1985); and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2001). In 2003–2004, a retrospective of his works from 1963 to 1975 was presented at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany, and the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Switzerland. Dr. Copeland curated a major retrospective of his work in 2023–2024 at Circuit, Lausanne, and the Fondation Venet, Le Muy.

Organised by Sarah Wilson, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Courtauld Institute.

https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/robert-barry-the-defining-of-it/