Robert Irwin, a pioneering conceptual artist and leading figure of the Light and Space movement whose work had significant influences in architecture, passed away last night in San Diego. He was 95.
Irwin helped push the boundaries of American post-war art with his understanding of the principles of design. Along with a cohort of artists like James Turrell, Richard Serra, Larry Bell, and Donald Judd, Irwin worked to constantly challenge the perception of his viewers. He left behind painting to pursue a “conditional art” that espoused a further shift away from pictorial composition and towards the responsiveness of art objects to the context of a site.
Irwin’s collaborative site-conditioned work with institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dia Art Foundation, and LACMA set new precedents for the inclusion of living artists in a museum’s program, the influence of which today can be seen in the careers of Marina Abramović and Isaac Julien, among others. Irwin was also the current through which a young Frank Gehry was able to first establish an intellectual foothold in Los Angeles and was famously a teacher of future budding local stars Vija Celmins, Chris Burden, and Ed Ruscha.
As a designer of spaces, Irwin will leave behind an equally significant portfolio that includes his plans for the Getty Center’s Central Garden landscape in 1998 and the 2003 adaptive reuse of a former Nabisco factory in Upstate New York with OpenOffice into the popular Dia:Beacon museum that has become a must-see for art lovers since opening.
Irwin’s signature scrim pieces, a series of interventions into architectural spaces that began at MoMA in 1970, will be remembered particularly for their ability to reimagine enclosed spaces using light, geometry, and a palette of simple materials. It was through the perfection of them that his final project, an intervention at a former U.S. Army barracks owned by the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, was able to be realized in 2016. Irwin also received the coveted MacArthur “genius” award for his practice in 1984.
“In my long career, I have been privileged to work with some of the greatest artists of the 20th century and develop deep friendships with them, but none greater or closer than Robert Irwin,” Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace Gallery, which has represented Irwin since 1966, recalled to ARTnews. “In our 57-year relationship, his art and philosophy have extended my perception, shaped my taste, and made me realize what art could be.”
A further remembrance of Irwin is available here via the Pace Gallery.
5 Comments
I just watched a documentary about Robert, the scenes of him telling Meier he was full of shit are worth it alone.
Oh, he's so much better than Turrell.
better than Turrell? how dare you!
Infinitely better.
A genuinely compelling artist - the real deal - Irwin paid the cost to be the boss.
It is the all-male list that was internally protected... There are some key female artists in that group such as Mary Corse. She was challenged for many years to be part of the "Light and Space." Besides that, everyone in that group did/does groundbreaking works of art and I was lucky in Southern California to be exposed to their works early on. It is an important component of my teaching work to expose my students to what they do asap. RIP Bob Irwin indeed and rest in light also.
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