Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change
- Madison
- Aug 16, 2016
- 2 min read
I went to Washington DC earlier this month and made sure to visit all the museums, and that I did. One artist in particular that caught my eye was self-proclaimed artist Robert Irwin.
Californian born Robert Irwin is best known for his art abstractions and adding a whole new meaning to the term, 'action painting.' Holland Cotter from the New York Times best describes the artist's work as "generated not by the hand of the artist and embodied in frozen strokes of paint, but by the mind and eye of the viewer, approaching art, taking it in and reacting to it in real time." In his most recent exhibition, All the Rules Will Change, at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, the control of perception is Irwin's main tool in his work.
Irwin entered into the art field of Abstract Impressionism in the 1940s and 1950s focusing specifically on art aesthetics and phenomenology, the study of consciousness and direct experience. However, it wasn't until the 60s, a time for true experimentation, when Robert shifted more into contemplation and how art can trigger such. Hence, in a way rules were changing.
One great example I noticed while visiting the exhibition was that there were numerous free-standing walls ten to fifteen feet away from one another, and as you got closer and closer to a piece, the piece itself would evolve visually. Lines began to appear when you were five feet away. Stains began to form into actual shapes. Looking at Irwin's works from every angle and distance allows a completely different perception.
After the MOMA extended their exhibition for the artist in 1965, Robert Irwin's work has been a huge hit at Museums like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Whitney, São Paulo Art Biennial, and now at the Hirshhorn. His concept is so creative and triggering. I highly encourage anyone to experience his work and find new perspectives from any angle.
"Its power lies neither in the hand of the maker nor in the eye of the perceiver, but in the meeting, on springy, shifting, flowering ground, between the two." --Holland Cotter, The New York Times, April 7, 2016
-MASR
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