Collection: Robert Barry

Robert Barry (b. 1936) is an American conceptual artist whose practice has explored the limits of the visible, the knowable, and the communicable since the late 1960s. Associated with the first generation of conceptual art in New York, Barry produced works using inert gases released into the atmosphere, carrier waves, radiation, and telepathic communications — works that exist at or beyond the threshold of perception.

His contributions to Seth Siegelaub's landmark exhibitions and publications, including the January 5–31, 1969 exhibition and the Xerox Book (1968), were central to the development of dematerialised practice. Barry's work consistently tests what can constitute an artwork when the object is absent, invisible, or known only through declaration.

Publications gathered here include exhibition catalogues and printed matter relating to Robert Barry's practice. Original and period items.