Ad Reinhardt was a mid-20th century abstract artist who also worked magic with color. Turrell was greatly influenced by Reinhardt, and for a few weeks, the Pace Gallery in New York had a show that presented a work by Turrell, as well as a Reinhardt collection curated by Turrell. And that’s where I went this afternoon.
Turrell’s “After Effect” was in a dark room, to which eight people were allowed in at a time, and we had five minutes to soak in the slowly changing colors from rose to green, looking like a rectangle at an angle. Of course, that isn’t exactly what was there, and we didn’t have much chance to really examine the work, given our time constraint and that we had to sit on a bench and not move around. (See the link below, but a photo really doesn’t do justice to what’s there.)
The Reinhardt was much more satisfactory, as we could stay as long as we wanted in front of each of the eight paintings. A canvas of solid black would, with patient looking, begin to reveal shadowy red-black blooms that almost pulsate. A solid blue long rectangle actually had a slightly thicker thin blue line in the middle, and some of the blue was just a tad lighter than the rest, but you had to look at it deeply so see the difference. I would have liked to get up close and examine the paint on the canvas — how did he achieve his effects? — but the setup kept viewers at least three feet away.
Still, it
provided many moments of stillness and looking.
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What a fascinating way of looking at art. I am glad that you were able to sit and be still observing the art as it in this room. The link you shared its an installation that I would enjoy seeing.
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