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James
Turrell
The
Medal of Honor for Excellence in Visual Arts
presented to James Turrell
January 26, 2005
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James
Turrell, "Raemar,” 1969, reconstructed 2004,
mixed media installation |
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First,
I am dealing with no object. Perception is the object.
Secondly, I am dealing with no image, because I want
to avoid associative, symbolic thought. Thirdly, I am
dealing with no focus or particular place to look. With
no object, no image and no focus, what are you looking
at? You are looking at you looking.
—James Turrell
Some
artists work with paint. Others favor clay or fabric.
But artist James Turrell’s medium is more ephemeral:
light. His artworks isolate light, giving it form, depth,
and mass. Turrell’s work involves explorations
in light and space that speak to viewers without words,
impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of
a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere
that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,”
says the artist, “like the wordless thought that
comes from looking in a fire.”
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James
Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943. His undergraduate
studies at Pomona College focused on psychology and
mathematics; only later, in graduate school, did he
pursue art. He received an MFA in art from the Claremont
Graduate School in Claremont, California.
Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and
optical, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves
“seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at
sunset or transforming the glow of a television set
into a fluctuating portal, Turrell’s art places
viewers in a realm of pure experience.
Situated near the Grand Canyon and Arizona’s Painted
Desert is Roden Crater, an extinct volcano the artist
has been transforming into a celestial observatory for
the past thirty years. Working with cosmological phenomena
that have interested man since the dawn of civilization
and have prompted responses such as Stonehenge and the
Mayan calendar, Turrell’s crater brings the heavens
down to earth, linking the actions of people with the
movements of planets and distant galaxies.
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View
into the interior of a piece by James Turrell at the
Nasher Sculpture Center |
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James
Turrell's Skyspace at the Henry Art Gallery. Photo by
Anna Fahey |
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His
fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately
connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s
place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker faith,
which he characterizes as having a “straightforward,
strict presentation of the sublime,” Turrell’s
art prompts greater self-awareness through a similar discipline
of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation. His
ethereal installations enlist the common properties of
light to communicate feelings of transcendence and the
Divine.
He is the recipient of several prestigious awards such
as Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships.
Click
here to see various videos, works, links and more from
the PBS website for art:21,
Art in the 21st Century.
Read
an interview with Mr. Turrell.
Watch
a webcast of a lecture by Mr. Turrell on in 2003,
sponsored by the Sonoma County Museum.
Learn
about Mr. Turrell' skyspace, Light Reign,
at the Henry Gallery in Seattle.
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