Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling

The film traces Californian artist Robert Irwin’s long career. He was born in Long Beach in 1928, and is best known for site-specific installations and ephemeral interventions that play with the perception of space and light. Irwin joined Los Angeles’ Cool School scene in the late 1960s as a painter, but soon abandoned object-making for philosophy. His experimental installations of an ephemeral nature earned him a reputation as a visionary among other artist friends such as Ed Ruscha, Chris Burden and Vija Celmins. Archival materials and unpublished interviews show Irwin installations created for the Villa Panza collection in Varese, and the Central Garden of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, a natural work that changes with the passing of time and the seasons. At 87, Irwin’s career culminated in a massive permanent installation for the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. The film follows the complex creation of this radical ode to the evanescent elements of light and space.