Robert Irwin (artist): Difference between revisions

'''Robert W.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 art|site-specific]], architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space.

Robert W.Walter Irwin was born on September 12, 1928, in [[Long Beach, California]], to Robert Irwin and Goldie Anderberg Irwin.<ref name="NYT Obit" /> He grew up in the [[Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles|Baldwin Hills]] area of [[Los Angeles]], and graduated from [[Susan Miller Dorsey High School|Dorsey High School]].<ref name="NYT Obit" /> After serving in the [[United States Army]] from 1946 to 1947, he attended several art institutes: [[Otis Art Institute]] in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1950, [[Jepson Art Institute]] in 1951, and [[Chouinard Art Institute]] in Los Angeles from 1952 to 1954. He spent the next two years living in Europe and North Africa. Between the years 1957–1958, he taught at the [[Chouinard Art Institute]].

Irwin moved on to landscape projects after developing a stylistic move towards experiential space, projecting what he learned about line, color, and most of all, light onto the built environment. From 1975 fowardforward, Irwin conceived of fifty-five site projects. ''9 Spaces 9 Trees'' (1980–3) originally was commissioned in 1980 for the rooftop of the Public Safety Building by the Seattle Arts Commission; it was re-imagined in 2007 and situated on campus at the [[University of Washington]]. Irwin's ''Filigreed Line'' (1979) made for [[Wellesley College]] in [[Massachusetts]], consists of a stainless steel line, running along a ridge of grass near a lake, in which a pattern of leaflike forms is cut. His 1983 work ''[http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artist/irwin.html Two Running Violet V Forms]'', two crossing blue-violet, plastic coated wire fences fixed with high poles, is featured as part of the [[Stuart Collection]] of public artwork on the campus of the [[University of California, San Diego]]. For ''Sentinel Plaza'' (1990) in the [[Pasadena Civic Center District]], Irwin chose small desert plants and [[cacti]]. He later consulted on the master plan for [[Dia:Beacon]], creating, in particular, the design and landscaping of the outdoor spaces, and the entrance building and the window design.<ref>[http://www.diacenter.org/exhibitions/artistbio/84 Robert Irwin] Dia Art Foundation.</ref>

Irwin later completed the second phase of the installation of a primordial Palm Garden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which began in 2007.<ref>[http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/11546/31/126619/the-pace-gallery-57th-street/exhibition/robert-irwin-way-out-west/press_release/ Robert Irwin: Way Out West, November 12, 2010—January 29, 2011] ARTINFO.</ref> The Palm Garden is arranged in a "T" shape with the east–west axis running between and around, both the [[Broad Contemporary Art Museum]] and the Resnick Pavilion. The north–south axis terminates with a grid of date palms serving as a counterpoint to artist [[Chris Burden]]'s ''[[Urban Light]]'' installation. Irwin was long intrigued with how palm trees capture and reflect Southern California light; designing the Palm Garden provided Irwin with an opportunity to work with both the phenomenal and cultural perceptions of palms. Individual species of palms are planted in [[Cor-Ten]] boxes, modern and formalized versions of common wood nursery boxes. The sculptural containers make reference to the pedestal bases traditionally signifying art objects. Irwin's use of palm trees considers the ubiquitous and iconic connection between the palm tree and images of Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zell|first=Jennifer|title=Between Fronds|journal=Landscape Architecture|date=January 2011|volume=101|issue=1|pages=86–97|url=http://archives.asla.org/lamag/lam11/january/feature1.html|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120707114636/http://archives.asla.org/lamag/lam11/january/feature1.html|archivedate=July 7, 2012}}</ref>

In 1965, he participated in an exhibition called ''[[The Responsive Eye]]'' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at another called ''XIII'' in [[Bienal de São Paulo]], Brazil. In 1966, he exhibited both as an individual and with [[Kenneth Price]] at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and as an individual exhibitor later at The Pace Gallery in New York City. In 1969, Irwin exhibited with [[Doug Wheeler]] at the [[Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth|Fort Worth Art Center]] in [[Fort Worth, Texas]]. In 1970, he first exhibited scrim "volumes" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For the next five years, he exhibited individually at the following locations: the Pace Gallery in New York City, the [[Walker Art Center]] in [[Minneapolis]], the Minuzo and [[ACE gallery|Ace]] Galleries in Los Angeles, the [[Fogg Art Museum]] on the [[Harvard University]] Campus in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], [[Wright State University]] in Dayton, Ohio'','' the [[University of California at Santa Barbara]], Fort Worth Art Center, and [[Palomar College]] in [[San Marcos, California]]. He participated in several joint exhibitions: "Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: Four Artists" at the [[UCLA]] Art Gallery in Los Angeles and "Some Recent American Art" at the Museum of Modern Art exhibition for Australia. He also exhibited internationally: "Kompas IV" at [[Stedelijk Museum]] in [[Eindhoven]], with other artists, (Larry Bell and Doug Wheeler), at the [[Tate Gallery]] in London, and [[Documenta]] atin [[Kassel]] in Germany''.''

Irwin was awarded a [[MacArthur Fellowship]] in 1984, making him the first artist to receive the five-year fellowship, which lasted until 1989. He haswas also been the recipient of a [[John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship]] (1976), the Chaloner award, the [[James Duval Phelan Award|James D. Phelan award]] (1954), and the [[Thomas Jefferson]] Foundation medal in architecture awarded by the [[University of Virginia School of Architecture]] (2009). He held Honorary Doctorates from the [[San Francisco Art Institute]] (19791978) and the [[Otis College of Art and Design]] (1992). Irwin was elected as a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] in 2007. That same year he had a residency at the [[Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego]].<ref>[http://www.mcasd.org/collection/artist/robert+irwin/light+and+space Robert Irwin: ''Light and Space'', 2007] [[Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego]].</ref>

[[Category:ModernAmerican modern painters]]

[[Category:PeopleArtists from Long Beach, California]]