JamesTurrell by Craig Adcock Florida State University Gal-lery & Museum PROJECT SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATION FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY This project was supported in part by a grant from the Bernard F. Sliger, President National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency. Augustus B. Turnbull Ill, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs Portions of this project were sponsored by the National J. L. Draper, Dean, School of Visual Arts and Dance Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Arts Council. All sponsored programs prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap UNIVERSITY GALLERY & or age in accordance with federal law. MUSEUM STEERING COMMITTEE Exhibition March 10-April 16, 1989, organized by the Tom Anderson, Professor of Art Education Florida State University Gallery & Museum, curated by Robert Fichter, Professor of Art Craig Adcock. Craig Adcock is currently Professor of Art Cynthia Hahn, Professor of Art History History at the University of Notre Dame. His book on Robert Hobbs, Professor of Art History James Turrell is forthcoming from the University of Mark Messersmith, Professor of Art California Press. Tasuku Ohazama, Professor of Interior Design Greg Presley, Professor of Dance Paul Rutkovsky, Professor of Art Student representatives: Paige Bednarek, Art History PUBLICATION Chris Landry, Art Tad Quinlan Text and Design: Craig Adcock, Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame STAFF Production Editor, Grantswriter and Administrator: Allys Palladino-Craig, Director, Florida State University Gallery & Museum Allys Palladino-Craig, Director Patrick McCune, Curator of Exhibits Typography: RapidoGraphics, Inc., Tallahassee Gretchen Janke, Registrar Printing: Gandy Printers, Inc., Tallahassee Jennifer Clay, Fiscal Officer Chris Landry, Preparator © Copyright 1989/FSU Gallery & Museum Julian Graham School of Visual Arts and Dance/). L. Draper, Dean Marilyn Hinson Al I rights reserved Andrea Josey Deidre Kendrick Elizabeth Kick Laura Lux Chrissy Moseley Kate Pridmore COVER Christopher Saliga Desiree Serrano James Turrell, Mendota Stoppages, 1969. Detail from stage Heather Shaw 8. Private Collection, Pasadena, California. Photo: James Joann Weaver Turrell, courtesy of the Artist. Amy Wieck 4 LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum/New York In 1983 the University Gallery & Museum embarked The Lannan Foundation/Los Angeles, California upon an initial collaboration with critic Craig Adcock Daniel and Rotraut Moquay Collection which was to be the first of many. Now six years and six Museum of Art, University of Arizona/Tucson projects later, we at Florida State University have three new The Museum of Contemporary Art/Los Angeles, California events to celebrate: Professor Adcock's curatorship of this Phoenix Art Museum/Phoenix, Arizona important exhibition, his catalogue authorship from the James Turrell, Skystone Foundation/Flagstaff, Arizona vantage point of a fruitful relationship between the Artist and himself, and the success of both men as the University of California Press undertakes the forthcoming Adcock book on James Turrell. This convergence of paths-James Turrell's, Craig Ad­ cock's, and that of this institution-has been made possible by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Arts Council, and the faith and phi­ lanthropy of the Artist's Collectors. Without the Lenders to this exhibition, neither the scope and heroic nature of the Artist's Roden Crater Project, nor the rich spectrum of his light installations could be appreciated as fully. To create a palpable experience from a phenomenon as pure and ephemeral as light is a genius revealed to us by the Artist's works installed here and set into context by the companion text of the catalogue: to both Artist and Author we express our admiration and gratitude. To Mr. Turrell's talented as­ sistant Craig Baumhofer-for technical wizardry on the bones beneath the creations in this exhibition-again our heartfelt thanks. Closest to home, it gives us great delight to acknowledge the support and encouragement of Florida State University President Bernard Sliger and of Jerry L. Draper, Dean, School of Visual Arts and Dance, during this 1989 Spring Celebration of the Arts. On behalf of the staff of the University Gallery & Mu­ seum and the members of our Steering Committee, it is a pleasure to welcome you to this happiest of occasions. Allys Palladino-Craig Director James Turrell, Arcus, 1989, a mixed-light installation at Florida State University Gallery & Museum; the quality of light was altered in the late afternoon by the westerly sun. Assisting the Artist in the construction were Craig Baumhofer, the Staff of the University Gallery, and the following dedicated volunteers: Craig Adcock; Rick Asadourian; Michael Bartoszewicz; Margaret Brommelsiek; Rolf Brommelsiek; Roger Campbell; Greg Carter; Barbara Clark; Kevin Cook; David Crook; Bart Frost; Tzu-Shan Liang; Brian Marshall; Nazek Mikati; Julie Moore; Erika Romeus; W.T. Stinson and Chris Lau, for technical aspects of electrical installation; and most particularly the expertise and continuous involvement of John Woodworth. Photo: Bill Langford, Florida State University. James Turrell was first recognized as a member of the between an object and our consciousness of it." 1 Sobel California avant-garde during the last part of the 1960s. might have added Turrell's works to his list of unusual cate­ Since that time, he has taken a number of radical ap­ gories because they too make us aware that light exists proaches to making art. Perhaps the most startling aspect of between us and our perceptions. Turrell's light images re­ his work is its near·axiomatic directness. Turrell uses light to veal what is normally lost amid the welter of things and create sculpture out of what we normally think of as empty obscured by the simple act of seeing structure in the am­ space. He manipulates perception itself and, over the years, bient array. has succeeded in finding innovative ways of making pure After Turrell made his decision to use pure light, he was radiant energy perceptible as substance. He makes it possi­ faced with the problem of how to go about making the art. ble for us to see light as light rather than illumination on How do you sculpt intangible electromagnetic flux? As he objects. In an interesting scientific discussion of the elec­ explains, there were essentially no precedents in the history tromagnetic spectrum, physicist Michael Sobel points out of art for working with light directly: "One of the difficulties how unusual it is for us to think of light in its own terms: of using light is that there isn't yet a tradition of using it in "We see not light but objects, constructed by the brain from our culture. On the one hand, it is no more unusual to use it information passed along the optic nerve. We construct than to use stone, clay, steel, or paint. These are materials shapes, colors, textures, and motion." Sobel then reminds that you honor, and to that degree I was interested in using us that "often it is only the peculiarities of light's behavior­ light as material-not light in glass, scrim, or plexiglass, but the distorted view of objects under water, the left-handed light in the space itself and the qualities of space-making image in a mirror, or the play of sunlight on wavelets on a light without traditional physical form. There is a rich tradi­ lake-that call our attention to the existence of something tion in painting of work about light, but it is not light-it is 7 ames Turrell with Robert Irwin and Edward Wortz at Garrett Aerospace, Los Angeles, 1968. Photo: Malcolm Lubliner, :ourtesy of the Artist. the record of seeing. My material is light, and it is respon­ the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and his sive to your seeing-it is non-vicarious." 2 By emphasizing 1986 retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the "non-vicarious" aspect of his art, Turrell draws our at­ Los Angeles, Turrell has delighted museum visitors with the tention to the inherent fascination involved in confronting simple beauty of light and the profound significance of di­ light. Through our encounters with his works, we become rect seeing. In his ethereal light and space sculptures, the aware of the powers of our own seeing. object of the art-and the art object-becomes the basic Perceiving perceiving, or seeing seeing, to use the di­ process of perceiving, and perhaps because they function at rect parallelism Turrell himself prefers, has been at the cen­ such fundamental levels, they are timeless. At the present ter of his art since the beginning. His decision to work with art historical moment, somewhere near the end of the Post­ light was reinforced by one of his earliest artistic oppor­ Modern, Turrell's images are as dynamic and relevant as tunities. During 1968 and 1969, he participated in the Art & ever. Technology Program organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Turrell worked with fellow artist Robert Irwin and experimental psychologist Edward Wortz, a sci­ entist who at that time headed the life-science division of Garrett Aerospace, a firm subcontracting work for NASA's Apollo Program. The collaboration was important in terms of what Turrell, Irwin, and Wortz learned about the poten­ tialities of taking a perceptual approach to art making. Their project involved combining a totally homogeneous visual field, or a Canzfeld as it is called in perceptual psychology, with a sound-damped aural space generated by an ane­ choic chamber. Unfortunately, this work was not realized, but had they managed to complete such an environment, it would have encouraged focusing directly on the inner workings of seeing and hearing. Despite the fact that no physical work was produced for the Art and Technology Program, the collaboration was judged a success by all concerned.