Ad Reinhardt & James Turrell
“Ad Reinhardt: Color Out of Darkness, Curated by James Turrell James“
“Turrell: After Effect”
Pace Gallery
New York, 540 West 25th Street
The presentation, titled Color Out of Darkness, will feature Reinhardt’s paintings illuminated by a lighting concept conceived by Turrell, whose pioneering investigations of light, color, space, and perception have been greatly influenced by Reinhardt’s practice and legacy, in particular his “red,” “blue,” “white,” and “black” paintings. As part of the exhibit ion, a new Wedgework installation by Turrell will be on view on the first floor of the gallery. Pace Publishing will produce a book for the exhibition to be released following its run.
Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, Red, 1953 © 2021 Estate of Ad Reinhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The show will examine the ways that both artists explore the decentra lization of the object in their practices, and Turrell’s lighting concept for the show will foreground the experiential nature of Reinhardt’s work. Leonardo da Vinci’s description of the sfumato technique relates to the exhibition’s focus on perceptual exp eriences of light and shadow in works by Turrell and Reinhardt. The Renaissance master once said that sfumato is “without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane.” Pace’s exhibition will draw connections between works by Turrell, a key figure of the Light and Space movement, and Reinhardt, who pushed abstraction and monochromatism in painting to new frontiers during his lifetime.
Turrell is known worldwide for installations that explore perceptions of light and space. Pace’s pre sentation will include Turrell’s new Wedgework installation titled After Effect (2021). The artist’s curatorial vision for the exhibition of Reinhardt’s paintings on the second floor centers enactments of lightness and darkness, and he has created a lighti concept to conjure new modes of viewing Reinhardt’s abstractions. Turrell is also currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts.
