“I like the description 'Physical art'. I think maybe art emerged when man first began to distinguish himself from nature. Art is part of himself, which he returns perhaps as an homage to the nature which he left. Of course, he never left nature. The rise of consciousness, perhaps... The main thing we believe, that separated us from not only animals but from the stones, is the fact that we are not stones, that we are not dogs. Now that is an assumption, perhaps it's a false assumption. But anyway, somehow I think one of the greatest functions of art is that man can feed back to his own consciousness through the knowledge that he is not a stone or not a dog.”

— Carl Andre

December 1969; quote from a talk with his audience
Source: Artists talks 1969 – 1977, p. 12

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Carl Andre 32

American artist 1935

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An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Introduction, p. 15
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