The works by Rober Irwin are included in the group exhibition Penumbra : Dia Art Foundation, curated by Humberto Moro and Ella den Elzen, in collaboration between the Dia Art Foundation and the Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The exhibition brings for the first time in Argentina, major figures of contemporary art whose work has never before been exhibited in the country. The exhibition represents a milestone in Proa’s program and a major event for the local and regional art scene.
The works brought together at Proa reveal moments of great intensity in each artist’s trajectory. In Robert Irwin’s works, light and the passage of time transform the experience : nothing is fixed; everything depends on duration and movement through the space.
Several light installations by the artist are presented: Blue Jay (2018), Pacific Jazz (2010), Untitled (1965-67). In Blue Jay, the tubes take the form of lines that the artist himself describes as “drawings”. Here, Irwin pushes the relationship between light and perception even further: the work unfolds at the threshold between the presence and absence of light, relying entirely on the viewer’s perception of the interplay between color, material, and space.
Although these works are installed on the wall, like paintings, they exceed the limits of the frame and belong to the broader logic of his site-specific and “conditional” works, as seen in Untitled (1965-67), which is composed of synthetic polymer paint on aluminum and light.
