Like many California artists, Los Angeles native James Turrell is preoccupied with light. With a career that spans almost 50 years, light has always been his principal medium, capturing the essence of his spiritual connection to light and sight. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art- after 5 years of planning and 3 months of construction- James Turrell: A Retrospective is now on view and in conjunction with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Turrell’s 11 complex pieces include geometric light projections, prints and drawings, installations exploring sensory deprivation and fields of unmodulated colored light, and recent two-dimensional work with holograms that are all displayed in special rooms that are infused with unusual light.
A key artist in the Southern California Light and Space movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, Turrell graduated from Pomona College in 1965 with a degree in perceptual psychology and concentrated studies in art, math and astronomy, and attributes his minimalism and spirituality to his Quaker heritage. His installations can be found in 25 countries, where his design studios throughout the US and Europe assist with these ambitious works. Turrell’s private commissions may take years to develop and cost millions, however he is able to capitalize on the new computer-driven seven color LED light systems which allows for things he could only dream about in the 1960’s.
One section of the retrospective is devoted to Turrell’s work in progress, Roden Crater, an extinct volcano crater in the Arizona desert in which he is converting into an elaborate celestial observatory after first locating this dramatic site more than 40 years ago. A far more out-there experience awaits inside his perception cell, Light Reignfall, where you actually need to sign a waiver before settling into a 10-foot sphere that is managed by white lab-coated attendants. Only one person at a time is allowed and a separate ticket purchased in advance is required, where you begin this Stanley Kubrick-esque hallucinatory experiment lying flat on a slab that slides inside the sphere, while aggressive strobe-like colors and brightness flash at a speed that makes a night out clubbing seem like a yoga session. Since I usually get nervous around white lab coats, I opted to check out people’s reactions instead. May 26, 2013- April 6, 2014 www.lacma.org
