Robert Irwin
1928–2023
Introduction
Robert Walter Irwin (September 12, 1928 – October 25, 2023) was an American installation artist who explored perception and the conditional in art, often through site-specific, architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space.
Irwin began his career as a painter in the 1950s, but in the 1960s shifted to installation work, becoming a pioneer whose work helped to define the aesthetics and conceptual issues of the West Coast Light and Space movement. His early works often employed light and veils of scrim to transform gallery and museum spaces, but from 1975 until his death, he also incorporated landscape projects into his practice. Irwin conceived over fifty-five site-specific projects, at institutions including the Getty Center (1992–98), Dia:Beacon (1999–2003), and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2001–16). The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles mounted the first retrospective of his work in 1993; in 2008, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego presented another, spanning fifty years of his career. Irwin received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976, a MacArthur Fellowship in March 1984, and was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2007. He lived and worked in San Diego, California.
Wikidata identifier
Q7345814
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed April 29, 2024.
Introduction
Southern California artist associated with the Light and Space movement of the 1960s, who early in his career ceased making paintings in favor of ephemeral and sometimes intangible art environments, acting as master planner for the Dia Foundation's building in the Hudson River city of Beacon, and the central garden of the Getty Center, Los Angeles.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, environmental artist, installation artist, painter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500022899
Names
Robert Irwin, Bob Irwin
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 29, 2024.
13 works
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Scrim Veil-Black Rectangle-Natural Light
1978 -
Scrim veil-Black rectangle-Natural light, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1977 -
Interior/Exterior Window/Picture Planes Project Proposal Leo Castelli Gallery/Downtown
1977 -
Slant Park Slanting Grass Planes 52nd thru to 53rd Street, Open Project Proposal, 1976
1977 -
Scrim Vail-Black Rectangle Whitney Museum of American Art
1977 -
Fractured light-partial scrim ceilings-eye level wire, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970
1977 -
Soft Wall, Pace Gallery, New York, 1974
1977 -
Grass Hill Project Proposal
1977 -
Layout Gallery 3/Four Corners-Room/Black-Window Indication, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1976
1977 -
Trinity River Leap, Fort Worth Project Proposal
1977 -
Skylight/Stairwell scrim, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1976
1977 -
(No title)
1966–1967 -
Untitled
1963–1965
