James Turrell
American, born 1943
Gap from the series Tiny Town, 2001
Artwork Details
Collection Highlight
Materials
light installation
Measurements
dimensions variable
Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Credit
General Purchase Funds, 2005
Accession ID
2005:44
Since the 1960s, light itself has been artist James Turrell’s primary medium. In Gap, he plays on our sometimes easily misled powers of perception, calibrating the gallery space to project the initial illusion of a flat surface. However, the mysterious glowing rectangle at the rear of this darkened gallery is actually an opening into a carefully lit inner chamber. For Turrell, direct interaction with light offers experiences of “wordless thought” and the meditative space to contemplate other intangible notions, such as the infinite or the sublime.
Label from Out of Sight! Art of the Senses, November 4, 2017–February 4, 2018