I just finished Lawrence Weschler's biography of Robert Irwin, the painter and installation artist, which was a fantastic examination, via an ongoing, decades-long conversation between author and subject, of how Irwin obsessively pursued an ideal of pure, unmediated perception in his work. The turning point in Irwin's early career—the phase when he became Robert Irwin, so to speak—occurred during the early '60s, when he painted his ten "late line" paintings over a two-year period. Each of the ten paintings, at a glance, was a monotone, brightly-colored canvas with two thin, horizontal straight lines painted across the field. Irwin describes the process of sequestering himself in his studio, staring at his work, and repeatedly adjusting the positions of the two lines for optimal effect: "Renaissance man tells the world what he finds interesting about it and then tries to control it. I took to waiting for the world to tell me so that I could respond...After weeks and weeks of observation, of hairline readjustments, the right solution would presently announce itself."
#43: What People Are For
#43: What People Are For
#43: What People Are For
I just finished Lawrence Weschler's biography of Robert Irwin, the painter and installation artist, which was a fantastic examination, via an ongoing, decades-long conversation between author and subject, of how Irwin obsessively pursued an ideal of pure, unmediated perception in his work. The turning point in Irwin's early career—the phase when he became Robert Irwin, so to speak—occurred during the early '60s, when he painted his ten "late line" paintings over a two-year period. Each of the ten paintings, at a glance, was a monotone, brightly-colored canvas with two thin, horizontal straight lines painted across the field. Irwin describes the process of sequestering himself in his studio, staring at his work, and repeatedly adjusting the positions of the two lines for optimal effect: "Renaissance man tells the world what he finds interesting about it and then tries to control it. I took to waiting for the world to tell me so that I could respond...After weeks and weeks of observation, of hairline readjustments, the right solution would presently announce itself."