James Turrell

Following a highly successful first exhibition at Haines Gallery in 2003, world-renowned artist James Turrell returns to San Francisco with the light installation Magnatron. Magnatron is a simulacrum: an aperture, curved like a television screen, is placed in the wall; inside the wall, just below the aperture, sits a television set transmitting light. The resulting color fluctuation emitted into the space allows the viewer, like a moth drawn to a flame, to be only bathed in its endlessly changing glow. This enigmatic work brings to mind questions of complicity, complacency, and comprehension while the viewer quietly confronts what is oftentimes an oppressive apparatus. Turrell's medium is light and perception his motif. In an interview with PBS's Art:21 series, the artist remarked, "I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing, like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire."

Turrell's permanent Skyspace installation, titled Three Gems, will open this fall in the Osher Sculpture Garden at the new de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In addition to the upcoming project at the new de Young Museum, permanent installations of Turrell's work are on view at several museums including: Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York; The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Site Santa Fe; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; the Panza Collection, Varese, Italy; and the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany.

Since 1972 Turrell has been transforming Roden Crater, a natural cinder volcano near Flagstaff, Arizona into a large-scale artwork. Utilizing the same strategies with light and space as his installation works, Turrell has reshaped the concave cone of the crater creating various spaces in the interior, akin to his Skyspaces, from which one can view celestial occurrences. Construction of the project is under the direction of the Dia Art Foundation and the Skystone Foundation with support from the Lannan Foundation.

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James Turrell - Magnatron