January 2009
Phoenix Art Museum has announced the acquisition of a monumental new light installation by internationally renowned artist James Turrell – known as the sculptor of light.
This compelling new work, Mohl ip, purchased with funds provided by the Museum’s Contemporary Forum, is the largest of the artist’s Tall Glass series, the only neon Tall Glass in the United States and the first to be permanently on view in a public museum.
“This is a major acquisition by a seminal artist working today,” commented James Ballinger, The Sybil Harrington Director, Phoenix Art Museum. “Turrell’s light sculptures, Skyspaces and work at Roden Crater in northern Arizona, have brought him worldwide recognition. Given his importance both on the international art scene and here in Arizona, we are delighted to have this impressive new piece continuously on display in and in our collection.”
Mohl ip consists of a core of neon panels, which are individually programmed by the artist to create a subtle shift in color over time, similar to the deliberate but beautiful fashion in which the sky changes from late afternoon to night. Seen through a diffusing panel of glass, the careful construction ensures that the viewer sees only a floating, changing field of light—a subtle revelatory experience of light as tangible entities and physical presence.
“Mohl ip encapsulates Turrell’s career-long investigation into the manipulating light as an aesthetic and physical material that he began in 1966 with his Mendota Stoppage series and continued with his Ganzefeld pieces and Skyspaces,” commented Sara Cochran, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Phoenix Art Museum.
“This dynamic and exquisite installation also demonstrates the artist’s on-going interest in shaping the viewer’s experience so that they are able to perceive themselves perceiving. It is a powerful and delightful investigation of the very act of seeing that the public will have to experience for themselves to understand it.”
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