"A great artist can make art by simply casting a glance.
A set of glances could be as solid as any thing or place,
but the society continues to cheat the artist out of
his "art of looking" by only valuing "art objects."
The existence of the artist in time is worth as much
as the finished product. Any critic who devalues the *time*
of the artist is the enemy of art
and the artist. The stronger and clearer the artist's *view*
of time the more he will resent any slander on
this domain. By desecrating this domain, certain critics
defraud the work and mind of the artist. Artists with a
weak view of time are easily deceived by this victimizing
kind of criticism, and are seduced into some trivial history.
An artist is enslaved by time only if the time is controlled
by someone or something other than himself. The deeper
the artist sinks into the time stream the more it becomes
*oblivion*; because of this, he must remain close to the
temporal surfaces. Many would like to forget time altogether,
because it conceals the "death principle" (every authentic
artist knows this). Floating in this temporal river are the
remnants of art history, yet the "present" cannot support
the cultures of Europe, or even the archaic or primitive
civilizations; it must instead explore the pre-and post-historic
mind; it must go into the places where remote futures meet
remote pasts."

Robert Smithson, "A Sedimentation of The Mind: Earth Projects",
1968.