James Turrell

James Turrell (born 6 May 1943) is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York.

Background

Turrell was born in Pasadena, California. His parents were Quakers. His father was an aeronautical engineer and educator. His mother trained as a medical doctor and later worked in the Peace Corps. Turrell obtained a pilot's licence when 16 years old. He subsequently flew supplies to remote mine sites and worked as an aerial cartographer. He received a BA degree from Pomona College in perceptual psychology in 1965 (including the study of Ganzfeld) and also studied mathematics, geology and astronomy there too. He received a MA degree in art from Claremont Graduate School, University of California, Irvine in 1966.

Works

Main article List of James Turrell artworks

Turrell is best known for his work in progress, Roden Crater. He acquired the crater in 1979. Located outside Flagstaff, Arizona, Turrell is turning this natural cinder volcanic crater into a massive naked-eye observatory, designed specifically for the viewing of celestial phenomena. His other works usually enclose the viewer in order to control their perception of light; a James Turrell skyspace is an enclosed room large enough for roughly 15 people. Inside, the viewers sit on benches along the edge to view the sky through an opening in the roof. He is also known for his light tunnels and light projections that create shapes that seem to have mass and weight, though they are created with only light. As a lifelong Quaker, Turrell designed the Live Oak Meeting House for the Society of Friends, with an opening or skyhole in the roof, wherein the notion of light takes on a decidedly religious connotation. (See PBS documentary). His work "Meeting," at P.S. 1, is a recreation of such a meeting house.
His work Acton is a very popular exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It consists of a room that appears to have a blank canvas on display, but the "canvas" is actually a rectangular hole in the wall, lit to look otherwise. Security guards are known to come up to unsuspecting visitors and say "Touch it! Touch it!"
Turrell's works defy the accelerated habits of people especially when looking at art. He feels that viewers spend so little time with the art that it makes it hard to appreciate.

“

I feel my work is made for one being, one individual. You could say that's me, but that's not really true. It's for an idealized viewer. Sometimes I'm kind of cranky coming to see something. I saw the Mona Lisa when it was in L.A., saw it for 13 seconds and had to move on. But, you know, there's this slow-food movement right now. Maybe we could also have a slow-art movement, and take an hour.

”

At Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the Marquess of Cholmondeley commissioned a folly to the east of the great house. Turrell's "Skyspace" presents itself from the exterior as an oak-clad building raised on stilts. From the inside of the structure, the viewer's point-of-view is focused upwards and inevitably lured into contemplating the sky as framed by the open roof.
In October 2009, the “Wolfsburg Project,” Turrell’s largest exhibition in Germany to date opened and continued through October 2010. Amongst the works featured in the “Wolfsburg Project” is a "Ganzfeld," a light installations that cover 700 square meters in area and 12 meters in height.

Museum

In April 2009, The James Turrell Museum opened at the Bodega Colomé in the Province of Salta, in Argentina. It was designed by Turrell after Donald Hess the owner of the Bodega and owner of a few of Turell's works told him he wanted to dedicate a museum to his work. It contains 9 lights installation, including a skyspace (Unseen Blue), and some drawings and prints.

Past exhibitions

City of Anhirit
Trace elements: Light into space
Ghost Wedge
Pleiades^[8]
Heavy Water
Afrum
Into the Light
Milk Run
Unseen Blue
Big Red
Stuck Red and Stuck Blue

Books

Eclipse. Documents The Elliptic Ecliptic and Arcus, two temporary installations accompanying the last total eclipse of the 20^th century.
The Other Horizon. An overview of Turrell's development from 1967 to 2001.
James Turrell : the art of light and space by Craig Adcock.
James Turrell. Geometrie di luce. Roden Crater Project by Agostino De Rosa.