James Turrell Transforms the Guggenheim

With one of his largest installations to date, American artist James Turrell has transformed the rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Guggenheim Museum into a mesmerizing Skyspace. Shifting between natural and artificial light, Aten Reign - James Turrells main attraction - illuminates the central void with a brightly colored, banded pattern that imitates the museum’s famous ramps. This presents a dynamic perceptual experience in which the materiality of light is exposed.

More images of the luminous and immersive Skyspace after the break. 

"Light is a powerful substance,” Turrell explains. “We have a primal connection to it. But, for something so powerful, situations for its felt presence are fragile [...] I like to work with it so that you feel it physically, so you feel the presence of light inhabiting a space,” he says.“My desire is to set up a situation to which I take you and let you see. It becomes your experience."

Aten Reign, 2013 / James Turrell; Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Aten Reign, 2013 / James Turrell; Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Aten Reign, 2013 / James Turrell; Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

James Turrell will remain on view at the Guggenheim Museum until September 25, 2013. More information on the exhibition can be found here.

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Cite: Karissa Rosenfield. "James Turrell Transforms the Guggenheim " 26 Jun 2013. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/394484/james-turrell-transforms-the-guggenheim> ISSN 0719-8884

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