Robert Irwin (born September 12, 1928) is an American installation artist who often explores perceptual and artistic conditions through site-specific architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space. .

Robert Irwin in the studio working on an early line painting, 1962 (? Marvin Silver, courtesy of Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery) (click to enlarge)

His work in the 20th century He began his career as a painter in the 1950s, but turned to installation work in the 1960s, becoming a pioneer whose work helped define the aesthetic and conceptual issues of the West Coast Light and Space Movement. His early work often used light and gauze to transform gallery and museum spaces, but since 1975 he has also incorporated landscape projects into his practice. Irwin has conceived more than fifty-five site-specific projects at institutions such as the Gate Center (1992-98), Dia: Beacon (1999-2003), and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2001-16). The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles first conducted a retrospective of his work in 1993; in 2008, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego exhibited another, spanning his career spanning five decades. Irwin received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976, a MacArthur Fellowship in March 1984, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2007. He lives and works in San Diego, California.

Robert Irwin, “Untitled” (1969), acrylic paint on shaped acrylic, 53 1/4 in. diam., installation view, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (artwork ? 2016 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York, photo by Cathy Carver)

Beginnings

Robert Irwin was born in 1928 in Long Beach, California, to Robert Irwin and Goldie Anderberg Irwin. After serving in the United States Army from 1946 to 1947, he attended several art institutions: the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1950, the Jepson School of Art from 1951 to 1954, and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He spent the next two years living in Europe and North Africa. From 1957 to 1958 he taught at the Chouinard School of Art.

Installation view of "Band in Boston" (1962), "Bed of Roses" (partial) (1962), and "Untitled" (partial) (1962), in 'Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change' at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (artworks ? 2016 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York, photo by Cathy Carver)

Work

1977, Robert Irwin wrote something about himself: "I started as a painter in an unknown place, with few problems... My first real problems involved me The arbitrariness of the paintings... I use my paintings as a step-by-step process, with each new series of works directly responding to the questions raised by the previous series. I first question the mark as meaning and then as focus; Frame as containment questioning, edge as the beginning and end of what I see...Considering the possibility that nothing really transcends its immediate environment...I try to respond directly to the quality of each situation I find myself in, Rather than wholesale transforming it into a new or ideal environment, it is possible to directly engage with the nature of how it is. How can a space be considered empty when it is filled with real and tactile events?" (Robert Irwin, 1977) Robert Irwin's artistic concepts stem from a series of experiential perceptions. An abstract, open-minded thinker, he first presented experience as perception or sensation. He concluded that a sense of awareness or recognition helps clarify perception. For example, “We know the blue of the sky even before we know it is “blue,” let alone “the sky.”

Installation view of “Untitled (Acrylic Column)” (1969– 2011) and "Untitled (Acrylic Column)" (1969–2011), in 'Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change' (artwork ? 2016 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York, photo by Cathy Carver) ( click to enlarge)

He later explained that the concept of abstract thought occurs in the mind through the concept of self. Then, the physical form is recognized, the form is communicated to the community, and the objective compound occurs, depicting it. Norms of behavior, and norms of art, become identifiable. Then boundaries and axioms introduce logic and reasoning, and decisions can be made: inductive or deductive methods follow, justifying and convincing decisions about the perceived object. Research done by Irwin shows: "All ideas and values ??originate from experience, they can be separated at any time and developed directly on the basis of function and use, both of which actually remain relevant to the conditions, our subjective and objective existence. "Robert Irwin's philosophy defines his conception of art as a series of aesthetic inquiries, opportunities for cultural innovation, interaction with society, and complex historical development.

In his book Seeing the Name of a Thing Forgot, Lawrence Weschler documents Irving's early process as a young man in Southern California and his work as a post-abstract The emergence of a leader in the art world. Weschler describes the fascinating and often mesmerizing quality of these works in his book's liner notes:

Larry Bell's "6 x 6 An Improvisation," 2014

1980 In May, Robert Irvine returned to Market Street in Venice, California, where he maintained a studio until 1970, when he gave up studio work entirely. Melinda Wyatt opened a gallery in the building next door to his former workspace and invited Irwin to create an installation.

Robert Irwin's Excursus: Homage to the Square? at Dia: Beacon, Dia Art Foundation, June 1, 2015 – May 2017

He cleared the large rectangular room and adjusted the skylights , painted the walls white, then knocked down the wall facing the street and replaced it with a piece of translucent white muslin. The room seemed to change its aspects from the past day: people came and sat across the road and watched, sometimes for hours.

Due to the ephemeral or subtle nature of his work, this book is not just an introduction but, for many artists and art students, the primary way in which Robert Irvine's work is experienced. In 2007, he told Jori Finkel of The New York Times that people still come to him for autographs at his lectures. In that article, LACMA director Michael Govan, who tasked Irving with "designing our Dia: Beacon experience," said he believed the book "has convinced more young people to become artists than the Velvet Underground created." rock musician”.

Similar to what Gabriel Dawe's work, but no way related, here's another series of colored string suspended to look like movement and reflection. Absolutely stunning and labor intensive, I would imagine.

Painting

Irving's early work began with painting. In 1959, he painted a series of hand-held objects and exhibited for the second time as a solo exhibitor at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. The following year, 1960, he was asked to exhibit again at the Pasadena Art Museum. By then he began a series of continuous experiments. In 1962, he began teaching at UCLA and again exhibited at the Ferus Gallery. That year he began his line drawings. He exhibited and exhibited his point paintings at the Ferus Gallery in 1964.

Robert Irwin. Installation view, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, January 23 - April 21, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers. Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer.

From 1966 to During 1967, he began painting aluminum plates. He was invited as a solo exhibitor at Pace Gallery in New York. In 1968, he began teaching at the University of California, Irvine.

Over the next two years, he began his work using transparent acrylic discs with white raised structures affixed to the wall and illuminated with lamps. In 1970, he began working on "The Pillars," a series of transparent acrylic columns. In 1972, he began to study "sights" and "places" in the Southwest.

Robert Irwin. Installation view, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, January 23 - April 21, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers. Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer.

Light Works

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Irving first used fluorescent lighting in the 1970s. His site-conditioned installation Excursus: a homage to Square3, a meditation on painter Josef Albers and his exploration of color relationships, was exhibited at Dia: Chelsea between 1998 and 2000. It consists of 18 small rooms separated by taut gauze walls; the light in each room, whose value depends on the distance from the window, is enhanced by four white and colored double fluorescent bulbs, each hanging vertically on each The center of the wall. In 2015, it was reinstalled at Dia:Beacon and will remain on display in 2017. In a 2015 exhibition at New York's Pace Gallery, he installed multiple rows of column lights, coating different tubes with colored gel to change the spread of light.

Robert Irwin. Installation view, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, January 23 - April 21, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers. Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer.

Installation

Since 1968, Irwin has focused on the site itself by creating installations in rooms, gardens, parks, museums and various urban locations. Particularly influenced by the paintings of John McLaughlin, Irving and other light and space artists, becoming curious about pushing the boundaries of art and perception, in the 1970s Robert Irving left the studio to pursue installations that directly involved light Art and Space: Foundations of Visual Perception in Outdoor and Modified Indoor Places. These installations allow for open-ended exploration for both artist and viewer, creating altered experiences by manipulating the context of the environment rather than retaining the scope of individual artworks. Other artists involved in the Light and Space movement include John McCracken, James Turrell, Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, Doug Wheeler, Maria Nordman, and others.

Light and Space, 2007

115 fluorescent lights

271 1/4 × 620 in

689 × 1574.8 cm

In 1970, the Museum of Modern Art invited Irving to create an installation. Using the entire project space, Irwin suspended a white muslin fabric 10 feet from the floor and clad the walls with gleaming stainless steel wire. In 1971, the Walker Art Center commissioned the artist to create Untitled (Tilt/Light/Volume) for the first exhibition of the building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. For Soft Wall, a 1974 installation at New York's Pace Gallery, Irving simply cleaned and painted a rectangular gallery and hung a thin, translucent white theater eighteenth grid in front of one of the long walls. , creates an effect.

In an empty room, one wall seems permanently out of focus. A permanent wall installation in the entrance hallway of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Untitled (1980) is an exact replica of the deep window opposite. In the early 1980s, Irving was invited as a co-artist to design the revitalization and improvements to the Miami International Airport. In 1997, he transformed a room overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the La Jolla branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. To celebrate its 125th anniversary, the Indianapolis Museum of Art commissioned Irving to create "Light and Space III" (2008), thus becoming the first American museum to feature the artist's permanent interior installation. For this piece, Irving arranged an irregular grid pattern of fluorescent light bulbs on the walls surrounding the escalator, with a scrim frame on either side; as museum visitors move up and down between floors, they move through the piece work. Trifecta (Joe's Bar & Grill) is a three-story permanent fixture at Swiss Re's headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, completed in 2012.

1? 2? 3? 4?, 1997

Apertures cut into existing windows

115 × 320 × 221 in

292.1 × 812.8 × 561.3 cm

In late 2013, a 33-foot-tall acrylic column by Irving was unveiled at the San Diego Federal Courthouse, where the artist collaborated with his long-time friend and collaborator, architect Martin Poirer collaborated with landscape architect Andrew Spurlock. Built decades ago but never given a proper home due to a series of unforeseen circumstances, the three-story acrylic columns refract light and cast color as the sun moves through the hall. The fabrication of the columns and the technical issues related to the materials were carried out by Jack Brogan, a central figure in the evolution of light and space movement technology. Brogan invented the challenge and technique of polishing columns to the desired transparency and remains a high-water mark in the field.

Prism, 1971

Acrylic

143 7/10 × 5 9/10 × 5 9/10 in

365 × 15 × 15 cm

For the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Owen created an outdoor installation of primitive palm trees (Primal Palm Garden, 2008-2010) as well as an indoor 36-foot-long fluorescent-lit sculpture, Miracle Mile (2013), it shines behind them 24 hours a day.

Untitled, 1969

Acrylic lacquer on cast acrylic

53 × 24 1/2 in

134.6 × 62.2 cm

After working since the early 2000s and reworking his ideas to create a monumental installation for the Chinati Foundation, Irwin's installation in Marfa - a U-shaped building of approximately 10,000 square feet - will begin in early 2015 , and completed and open to the public. The installation, located in the building of the former military barracks hospital, will be the first major installation to join the Chinati Foundation since 2004, and the first by Irwin to be dedicated exclusively to his work.

Yellow Jacket, 2015

6 ft. single pin-14 tubes and 6 ft. double pin-1 tubes, fluorescent light, colored gels

72 × 95 1/5 × 3 1/2 in

182.9 × 241.9 × 8.9 cm

Other installations include: Shattered Light - Partial Muslin - Eyes at the Museum of Modern Art, New York Horizontal (1970-1971); Black Line Room Department Expansion Form, Whitney Museum, New York (1977); 48 Shadow Planes at the Old Post Office, Washington, D.C. (1983); Ascension to the Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris, France Moderne de Ville) (1994); and Double Diamond at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France (1997-1998).

Sculpture/Configuration 2T 3L, 2018

Acrylic

119 × 36 × 32 in

302.3 × 91.4 × 81.3 cm

Landscape Projects

Irwin turned to landscape projects after developing a style for experiencing spaces, projecting what he had learned about line, color and, most importantly, light into the built environment. Since 1975, Irwin has conceived fifty-five website projects. 9 Spaces 9 Trees (1980-3) was originally commissioned by the Seattle Arts Council in 1980 for the roof of the Public Security Building; it was reimagined in 2007 and is located on the campus of the University of Washington. Irwin's Filigreed Line (1979), made for Wellesley College in Massachusetts, consists of a stainless steel wire that runs along a grassy ridge along the edge of a lake, with leaf-like patterns cut into it. His 1983 work "Two Running Violet V Forms," ??two crossing blue-violet plastic-coated wire mesh secured with tall poles, is part of Stuart's series of public artworks on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. For the Sentinel Plaza (1990) in Pasadena's Civic Center district, Irwin chose small desert plants and cacti. He later consulted on Dia:Beacon's masterplan, in particular creating the design and landscaping of the outdoor spaces, as well as the entrance architecture and window design.

#4 x 8FT. FOUR FOLD, 2012

Light shadow reflection color

96 × 17 1/4 × 4 1/4 in

243.8 × 43.8 × 10.8 cm

He later designed and developed the Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, which was built in 1997. In the Central Garden, Owen's concept of integrating experiential relationships with the built environment is crystal clear. Those experiential elements fill the space. The project has been widely praised for its design and process. The 134,000-square-foot (12,400-square-meter) design features natural ravines and tree-lined walkways that guide visitors through the sights, sounds, and smells. He chose everything in the garden to highlight the interplay of light, color and reflection. Planning began in 1992 and is an important part of the Getty Center project. Since the center opened in 1997, the central garden has continued to evolve alongside the flora. Irving's statement, "Always changing, never the same twice," is inscribed on the plaza floor, reminding visitors of the ever-changing nature of this living art. To the artist's dismay, a 1950s sculpture by Fernand Léger was placed in the garden's square.

Swiss Made, 2015

Fluorescent light, colored gels

72 × 95 3/10 × 3 1/2 in

183 × 242 × 9 cm

Irwin recently completed the second phase of the 2007 installation of Original Palm Garden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The palm gardens are arranged in a "T" shape, with the east-west axis running between them. Surrounded by the extensive Museum of Contemporary Art and the Resnick Pavilion. The north-south axis terminates with a grid of date palms, serving as a counterpoint to artist Chris Burden’s Urban Light installation. Irwin has long been interested in how palm trees capture and reflect the light of Southern California; designing the Palm Gardens provided Irwin with an opportunity to grasp both the phenomenon and the cultural idea of ??the palm. Individual species of palm trees are planted in Cor-Ten boxes, modern and formal ordinary wooden nursery boxes. Sculpture containers reference the pedestal that traditionally represents an artwork. Irwin's use of palm trees considers the ubiquitous and iconic connection between palm trees and images of Los Angeles.