Dan Flavin
Stephen Antonakos
James Turrell
Robert Irwin
Susan Chorpenning
Pietro Costa
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Kenny Greenberg
Sheila Moss
Liz Phillip
Erwin Redl
Keith Sonnier
Robert Thurmer
Artists Focusing on Non-Traditional Media. Light defines our physical, visual and mental experiences. It determines how we move and stirs our emotions. The exhibition displays the work of Dan Flavin, Stephen Antonakos, James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Susan Chorpenning, Pietro Costa, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Kenny Greenberg, Sheila Moss, Liz Phillip, Erwin Redl, Keith Sonnier, Robert Thurmer.
We cannot touch or hold it, but
we can see it, and with it, see
our world. Light defines our
physical, visual and mental
experiences. It determines how
we move and stirs our
emotions. Opening on February
3 at the Hudson River Museum,
The Magic of Light examines
light art as physical sensation.
Magic presents work by 14
artists who changed the nature
of art by using light - rather
than paint or stone - to create.
Their artworks move away from
the traditional art object and
focus, instead, on the viewer’s
perceptions.
The Magic of Light displays the work of both established
and emerging American artists. James Turrell, part of the
Light-and-Space movement of the 1960s and 1970s along
with Robert Irwin, works with pure light, while his main goal
is the viewer’s highest visual and physiological perception.
Magic also shows how the vocabulary of these seminal
artists is reexamined by the recent work of artists like
Susan Chorpenning. Her work, Backtrack, presents a
shifting reality, her changing images held in
phosphorescence.
The entire museum is the framework for this exhibition. Five
new installations by Stephen Antonakos, Pietro Costa,
Kenny Greenberg, Erwin Redl and Robert Thurmer were
created especially for The Magic of Light. They respond to
the unusual spaces and varied architecture in and around
the museum’s complex of galleries, courtyards and the
historic Glenview Mansion. For example, the thousands of
lights in Erwin Redl’s Matrix I cover the 100-foot south wall
of the Museum’s main gallery. Exhibiting artists are Stephen
Antonakos, Dan Flavin, Susan Chorpenning, Pietro Costa,
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Kenny Greenberg, Robert Irwin, Bill
Jones and Ben Neill Sheila Moss, Liz Phillips, James Turrell,
Erwin Redl, Keith Sonnier and Robert Thurmer.
The Magic of Light will be accompanied by a fully illustrated
color catalog with essays by noted art critic Carter Ratcliff
and physicist Arthur Zajonc, published by The Hudson River
Museum.
The Magic of Light was organized by the Hudson River
Museum and is the third in the Museum’s series of
contemporary art exhibitions to explore nontraditional media
(Drip, Blow, Burn, '99 and Hanging by a Thread, '97-'98).
The Magic of Light is made possible, in part, by grants from
the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State
Council on the Arts and the David Bermant Foundation:
Color, Light and Motion.
Exhibiting Artists - The Magic of Light
Stephen Antonakos, a pioneer in neon art, is represented
by Welcome, 1999, Ruby Neon Incomplete Circles on a
Light Blue Wall, 1977, and Untitled, 2002.
Dan Flavin, is represented by untitled (in honor of Leo at
the 30th anniversary of his gallery), 1987. He worked with
fluorescent tubes to illuminate existing architecture and
suggest new space from old. His untitled (for Betty and
Richard Koshalek, a friendly reminder), 1979, is a permanent
installation at the museum and the inspiration for this
exhibition.
Susan Chorpenning’s Backtrack, 1995, a work from her
"dark" series.
Pietro Costa has created grace, 2002, a vertical series of
concentric red neon rings radiating intense light for this
exhibition.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (America) 1994-95 is one of
a series of installations he created which incorporates
flexible strings of light bulbs, that adapt to any space in
which they are installed.
Kenny Greenberg, whose career spans neon, light and
technology, introduces the viewer to all three fields in Ouija
Light, 2002 - especially created for this exhibition - and
invites them to manipulate colors and patterns.
Robert Irwin, Unititled (disc), 1965-1967, used circular
aluminum or mesh discs flooded with light to expand
perceptions he found circumscribed by rectangles in
conventional painting. Bill Jones and Ben Neill blend sight
and sound with Pulse 48, 1999. Its colorful plastic children’s
Frisbees and snow sleds, hidden together with light
elements inside each pod, react to the tempo and pitch
of the music.
Sheila Moss, in Night Fishers, 2000, beckons the viewer to
a compelling experience of altered perception with strings
of Q-tips, flashing light and phosphorescent paint.
Liz Phillip’s in Echo Evolution, 1999, builds 3-D human-scale
responsive sound and light structures, which viewers
activate and manipulate by their presence in the
structure’s space.
Erwin Redl brings his background in computer art, musical
composition and electronic music to Matrix I, 2000-2002,
especially created for this exhibition. The LED
(light-emitting diode), a source emanating from a
semiconductor crystal, is his medium.
Keith Sonnier in Palm Blatt, 2000, and Saule PleureurII,
2000, finds multiple ways for neon light to suggest space in
the environment and energy in the human figure.
Robert Thurmer, Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake
Zarathustra), 2002, creates a spiritual environment with
fluorescent light in the Museum’s Glenview Tower.
James Turrell is represented by Afrum #6 (Blue),1967,
whose work is so palpable viewers often try to touch the
light in this installation.
IMAGE: Erwin Redl Matrix I, 2000-2002 LED lights, copper wire and weights
Hudson River Museum
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