James Turrell: A Retrospective is the definitive monograph on an artist whose entire practice is built on a single, radical premise: that light itself — not what it illuminates, but light as pure phenomenon — is the medium, the subject, and the experience.
About This Book
Co-published with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this comprehensive volume traces the full arc of James Turrell's practice, from the early geometric light projections made in his Mendota studio through immersive installations exploring sensory deprivation and unmodulated fields of colour, to recent holographic experiments. Central to the book is an extended treatment of Roden Crater, Turrell's monumental site-specific intervention into the Arizona landscape near Flagstaff, documented through models, plans, photographs, and drawings. Thoughtful essays and an interview with the artist contextualise work shaped equally by Quaker spirituality, aviation, science, and Turrell's formative role in the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s. New photography by Florian Holzherr was commissioned specifically for this publication.
Key Features
- 304 pages of specially commissioned photography, installation documentation, models, plans, prints, and drawings
- New photography by Florian Holzherr; essays and artist interview
- In-depth documentation of Roden Crater, the Mendota studio works, light projections, sensory deprivation installations, and holographic experiments
- Published by DelMonico Books / Los Angeles County Museum of Art
What You'll Discover
- How Turrell's Quaker upbringing and its injunction to “go inside and greet the light” underpins every aspect of his practice, from intimate projections to vast earthworks
- The relationship between Turrell's background in aviation, perceptual psychology, and science, and the precision with which his installations manipulate human perception
- Roden Crater examined in full: the site-specific transformation of an extinct volcanic cone into a naked-eye astronomical observatory, presented through previously unpublished documentation
- The evolution from early flat-wall and corner projections through large-scale Skyspaces and sensory deprivation chambers to two-dimensional holographic works — a practice spanning more than five decades
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 304
- Dimensions: 250 x 300 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781636810799
- Publisher: DelMonico Books / Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Artists, curators, and architects working with light and space; students of perceptual art and land art; anyone seeking to understand how Turrell's practice connects phenomenology, spirituality, and landscape at monumental scale.