It’s hard to argue that Robert Irwin’s work is anything other than prolific. The contemporary artist’s career has been described as epic – one critic commented that “odyssey would probably be a better word than career.”
Last week, my girlfriend and I revisited his Primaries and Secondaries exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. A vast survey of Irwin’s art, the exhibition is an enthralling experience. Irwin began as a painter and eventually moved to installation pieces, serving as a pioneer of the light and space school – one of the most important movements the West Coast has produced.
A few years back, he designed “1°, 2°, 3°, 4°” (below, left), at the La Jolla wing of MCASD. An enveloping piece – Irwin created three apertures in the large glass-paned windows overlooking La Jolla Cove. The result was an experience that transformed the space from gallery to a quietly transcendental environment.
About half of the Primaries Secondaries exhibition closed at the end of February, and I knew I had to see the piece “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue3” (above) one more time. The pièce de résistance of the exhibition, it consists of six polished aluminum panels in primary colors. In groupings of two, one on the floor and one suspended above (blue above blue, et al) the MCASD’s Jacobs Building is transformed into a utterly captivating space. The piece vacillates between kitsch and divine – sweeping the viewer up in to itself.
If you have a chance, go see this fantastic exhibit. Unfortunately, “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue3” is gone, but other pieces will remain on exhibit until mid-April. (The museum is free for those 25 and under).
