{"data":{"id":"642","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":642,"topgoose_id":1957,"tms_id":642,"display_name":"Robert Irwin","sort_name":"Irwin Robert","display_date":"1928–2023","begin_date":"1928","end_date":"2023","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn the 1960s Robert Irwin set about creating\nworks of art that explored the physical\nexperience of looking. Like many of his Los\nAngeles peers in what came to be known\nas the Light and Space movement,\nhe had become increasingly interested in\noptical effects and the mechanics of\nperception as well as in the use of industrial\nand technological processes as a means\nto investigate these phenomena. Irwin’s\nseries of untitled “disc” works, begun\nin 1966, continued the project of his earlier\nperceptual “dot” paintings. Both series\nrepresented a radical desire to “eliminate\nimagery in favor of physicality” and an\nattempt to escape the limitations set by the\nrectangular frame of painting.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this untitled work, a circular, convex\naluminum disc, sprayed with matte acrylic\npaint in barely perceptible concentric rings\nand attached to an armature, appears\nto hover in space about twenty inches from\nthe wall. Four precisely positioned spotlights\ncast circular, overlapping shadows that\nexpand the area of the work by appearing\nto dissolve the boundary between the\ndisc and the wall behind it. “The key,” Irwin\nexplained, “was for the edge to become\nlost in its own shadows.” In effect, the\nwall becomes part of the work, which in turn\n“does not begin and end at an edge but\nrather starts to take in and become involved\nwith the space or environment around it.”\nIrwin’s interest in expanding the parameters\nof the artwork through perceptual and\nsensory experiments would continue\nto develop with environmental installations\nthat employ natural light filtered through\ndelicate fabric scrims and what he has\ncalled “site-conditioned” landscape works.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500022899","wikidata_id":"Q7345814","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:55:27.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:03:13.747-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/642/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/642/exhibitions"}}}}