Throughout his career, Robert Irwin has been more interested in how we see than what we see—in the perceptual experience of viewing rather than the physical object. Though his discs from the mid-1960s maintain a material presence on the wall, they simultaneously seek to dissolve the perceptual boundaries between architecture, object, light, and shadow. Untitled appears to hover, indistinguishable from its surroundings, hindering the viewer’s ability to define its edges. Instead, it offers a conditional, ephemeral, even immaterial experience.
Exhibition label: Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, Carol S. Eliel.
