James Turrell

James Turrell ( born May 6, 1943 in Los Angeles, California) is an American country - style artist who has become known for his room - light installations.

"Light is [ for him ] not something that enlightens other things, but a substance that manifests itself. "

Life and work

Turrell grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a Quaker family in strict religious conditions on; the family gave up power, car and other amenities. At age 16, he earned a pilot license for airplanes. A year later, he refused to do military service as a convinced pacifist and was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Turrell got his degree in psychology and mathematics at Pomona College in Claremont ( California). In 1966 he began work on " light areas ". In 1968 he was awarded a scholarship at the National Endowment for the Arts. An art studies at the Graduate School, Clare Moon, he graduated in 1973.

Turrell lives and works with his third wife Kyung Lee in Flagstaff, Arizona, as well as in Maryland.

Roden Crater

In the 1970s, he was with the airplane on the search for a suitable site for a predominantly underground -scale light installation. In the desert of Arizona, near Flagstaff, he discovered an extinct volcano crater with an oval caldera, surrounded by 400 square miles steppe. Turrell bought in 1974 then the area and called it Roden Crater. It was his best-known and most ambitious investment. He turned the volcanic cone by installing underground rooms, tunnels and shafts in a light - Observatory, which is to allow the viewer to experience the sky and its phenomena, light, sun and stars in a unique way.

Other works

Even with its Skyspaces Turrell is working intensively on the relationship between light and space - large rooms, in which the viewer can settle down to seats on the walls and where an opening in the ceiling allows the view of the sky. His light tunnels and light projections create forms that mass and weight seem to have, however, consist only of light.

In 2004, the Museum of Applied Arts, MAK Vienna, the exhibition more light. Targetti Light Art Collection at the MAK, the substantive statement was made ​​by Turrell's permanent light installation MAKlite with the urban environment in relationship.

In remote Argentinean highlands opened in 2009, the Swiss mineral water producer, restaurateur and large wineries Donald Hess a James Turrell Museum with space and light installations.

At the Centre for International Light Art in Unna Turrell built in 2009 a further Skyspace. This resembles a pointing towards the sky Camera Obscura, through which the sky can be observed. In the same museum also houses a Turrell as in-situ installation equipped Whitespace is.

In winter 2009/2010 Turrell presented at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg his biggest light installation in a museum.

In Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, the light installation for the main facade was handed over to the new Dornier Museum on 15 October 2009 officially. Turrell designed for Dornier Foundation, the lighting concept, which accentuates the translucent facade of an airplane hangar building modeled after sunset.

At the Kunsthalle Bremen since August 2011 his light installation Above - see below - Between.

In the summer of 2013, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City judge, a three-part retrospective of over 8,500 square meters for which both already shown how specifically for the spaces the museums designed works are shown.

Awards (excerpt)

Movies

  • James Turrell. Passageways. Documentation, France, USA, 2006, 26 min Written and directed by Carine Asscher, Production: Centre Pompidou, Summary, presentation of the Roden Crater project, with video clip
  • James Turrell. Heaven on Earth reportage, Germany, 2013, 44:06 min, written and directed by Armin Kratzert, Florian Mr. Wood, Production: BR, first broadcast: November 7, 2013, online video in the ARD library
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