Since the 1960s, James Turrell has created an expansive body of work that offers profound revelations about perception and the materiality of light. With their refined formal language and quiet, almost reverential atmospheres, his installations celebrate the optical and emotional effects of luminosity.
Turrell emerged as one of the foremost artists associated with what is known as the Light and Space movement, which began in Southern California in the mid-1960s. Building on his early research into sensory deprivation (particularly the Ganzfeld effect, in which viewers
Turrell emerged as one of the foremost artists associated with what is known as the Light and Space movement, which began in Southern California in the mid-1960s. Building on his early research into sensory deprivation (particularly the Ganzfeld effect, in which viewers
experience disorienting, unmodulated fields of color), his art encourages a state of reflexive vision that he calls “seeing yourself seeing,” wherein we become aware of the function of our own senses and of light as a tangible substance. These perceptual concerns are coupled with a deep commitment to the natural world and an interest in orienting his work around celestial events. The latter is manifested most fully in Turrell’s Roden Crater Project (1979– ), his magnum opus currently under construction at an extinct volcano near Flagstaff, Arizona.
This exhibition, Turrell’s first solo
This exhibition, Turrell’s first solo
presentation in a New York museum since 1980, considers the dominant themes explored by the artist for nearly fifty years, focusing on his explorations of perception, light, color, and space and the critical role of site specificity in his practice. It features a selection of early works, drawn from the museum’s Panza Collection as well as loans, that introduces visitors to the artist’s first statements in light. However, the show’s centerpiece is Aten Reign (2013), a major new project created specifically for the Guggenheim that reimagines the rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building as one of Turrell’s luminous and immersive
Skyspaces. Opened on the summer solstice, the installation fills the museum’s central void with shifting natural and artificial light and intense, modulating color, creating a dynamic perceptual experience that exposes the materiality of light.
