Raised-a-Quaker/Arts/Turrell, James

Gallery-Going

New York Sun/New York/NY/USA/21-Jul-05

…. A Quaker observing silence is instructed to "go inside and greet the light." It would seem those words, from his Quaker grandmother, had a profound effect on the artist James Turrell (b. 1943). For almost 40 years, light has been his primary medium. And during that period, his own light has grown, like a star at dusk, steadily brighter: It has slowly become clear that Mr. Turrell is one of the most significant artists of our time. He is celebrated now as the uncontested master of art's most fundamental material.

Which is odd, since he is best known for an incomplete work that almost no one has seen, the Roden Crater, an installation carved out of an extinct volcano at the southwestern edge of Arizona's Painted Desert. Most of us are familiar with his work from museum installations and shows like "James Turrell: Light Projections 1968 and Light Works 2005," which opened last week at Pace Wildenstein's 57th Street gallery. ...