Robert Irwin | Drawings

Quint Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by San Diego based artist ROBERT IRWIN. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, May 20th from 11am-1pm and is open to the public.

Irwin's new series, DRAWINGS, are not actually "drawings" in the traditional sense of the word. These drawings are variations of the fluorescent light works that Irwin has been working on for the past ten years. The distinction is that these sculptures are not wired for electricity and, thus, do not emit light. Looking at these works, one slowly forgets that they are light fixtures and begins to perceive them as purely abstract sculptures. The “drawings” consist of glass, painted metal, transparent/opaque gels, pinstripes, deep shadows, and a hard edge sensibility – giving the work an aggressive delicacy. 

By taking the utility out of the material, Irwin’s drawings call back to artists like Jasper Johns, who has used the light bulb as a motif. In reviewing an exhibition of John's light bulbs, critic Robert Pincus wrote:

“There is something strange about these objects, beautifully made but emotionally deadpan. They are wholly like the everyday thing and yet different than it. They slyly exploit the gap between the thing and the sculptural representation of it."

Arguably, one of the most important internationally known artists working today, Robert Irwin has an extraordinary list of exhibitions, art installations, and projects over the last sixty years. Including: “Bell/Irwin/Wheeler,” Tate Gallery, London, England (1970); “Fractured Light – Partial Scrim – Eye Level,” Museum of Modern Art, New York (1970-1971); “Black Line Room Division + Extended Forms,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1977/2013); “48 Shadow Planes,” Old Post Office, Washington DC (1983); "Two Running Violet V Forms," Stuart Collection, UCSD, California (1983); “Ascending,” Musee d’ Art Moderne deVille Paris, France (1994); “Double Diamond,” Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France (1997-1998); “1º 2º 3º 4º,” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (1997); “The Central Garden,” J Paul Getty, Los Angeles (1998); “Architecture and Grounds,” DIA Art Foundation, Beacon, New York (2003); “Primaries and Secondaries,” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2007-2008); “Black on White,” J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2011-2012); “Niagara,” Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2012); “Hedge Wedge,” San Diego Federal Courthouse Building, San Diego (2012); “Double Blind,” Vienna Secession, Vienna (2013); “Miracle Mile,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2013); “Primordial Palm Garden,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010-2013). “Varese Scrim 2013,” Panza Collection, Varese, Italy (2013); “Excursus: Homage to the Square³,” DIA Art Foundation, Beacon, NY (2015); and “untitled (dawn to dusk),” The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2016).

Among his many awards and honorary professorships/doctorates, Irwin has received the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1976), The MacArthur Fellowship (1984), and The Thomas Jefferson Medal for Architecture (2009). He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.