About
White Cube Mason's Yard is pleased to present Robert Irwin's first solo exhibition in the UK. Irwin has been one of the most influential artists working in the US over the past five decades. A pioneer of the âLight and Space' movement of the 1960s, Irwin's work focuses on perceptual phenomena, such as light, volume and scale, with installations that are conditioned by the site in which they take place.
Robert Irwin's career began as a painter before he started making objects, such as discs and acrylic columns. The presentation and placement of these works became as critical as the object itself, and in developing these ideas, Irwin sought to dissolve the distinction between the edge of the sculpture and its environment. By 1970, this investigation had led Irwin to abandon traditional object-based studio practice altogether. Instead he began to accept invitations to create new work by responding to specific situations. Irwin has said: âAn exhibition for me is not a statement but an experiment'. With this approach, which has enabled the artist to also incorporate landscape design and architecture in his practice, Irwin has produced some of the most extraordinary site-specific installations of recent decades, including exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, Dia Center for the Arts, New York, the Getty Center, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
For his exhibition at White Cube Mason's Yard, Irwin has created two new installations. On the ground floor, âBlack³' features a series of floor-to-ceiling parallel scrim material panels, which the viewer must navigate, thereby altering the perceptual field of the space. In addition, Irwin has made subtle adjustments to the optical conditions of the room, as a means of altering the phenomenological experience of the work. Positioned on the west and east walls are two square lacquered black paintings, echoes of which reverberate through the space, transmitted on and through the perpendicular translucent screens.
In âLight and Space II', located in the basement gallery, Irwin has created an installation with hundreds of fluorescent lights mounted at right angles in a non-repeating, grid-like formation. With no fixed focal point, the enveloping visual field resonates with geometric patterns, drawn by luminous lines, which redefine the characteristics of the space. âLight and Space II' brings together, in a large-scale but concise installation, the three principle points of reference throughout Irwin's career: light, architecture and space.
