James Turrell

After beginning studies in mathematics and psychology, he switched to studio art at the University of California at Irvine (1965), and continued at the Claremont Graduate School (1973). Since the late 1960s, he has created Skyspaces and “perceptual environments” that contain no objects. These works are based upon projections of coloured light into empty spaces, which then alter our perceptions of existing space.

In 1993, the Fondation Cartier presented Azur, an exhibition that explores the paradoxical representations of artists who have chosen to explore the infinite and the absolute. It featured Turrell's installation Skeet, which was part of his Space Division Construction series, which the artist had begun in 1976. These installations generally consist of two spaces separated by a partition with a rectangular opening. One side opens into a “viewing space”, the other onto a “sensing space”. The visitor can perceive the sensing space from the viewing space through an opening in which tungsten lights have been placed to create the illusion of a coloured solid plane on the wall.