My idea of painting was that those yellow squares, being put on the wall as delineating a virtual square or rectangle, were involving the wall itself within the piece and, in this sense, compared to what is usually a work of art, a painting, this piece was somehow reversing the usual terms of the esthetic proposition. Usually, you see the painting and you ignore the wall. Here you had the wall coming through the painting — and the painting itself, the painted pieces, become a standpoint to make the wall appear.


Robert Barry (1980) in: Alexander Alberro (2003). Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity. Alberro noted: "Barry has since discussed the way in which this painting accented the structural support..."

Robert Barry Quotes

My idea of painting was that those yellow squares, being put on the wall as delineating a virtual square or rectangle, were involving the wall itself ...

My idea of painting was that those yellow squares, being put on the wall as delineating a virtual square or rectangle, were involving the wall itself ...

My idea of painting was that those yellow squares, being put on the wall as delineating a virtual square or rectangle, were involving the wall itself ...

My idea of painting was that those yellow squares, being put on the wall as delineating a virtual square or rectangle, were involving the wall itself ...