American - Artist | May 6, 1943 -
It's possible to gather light that's older than our solar system.
James Turrell
LightPossibleSolarSystemOlder
Light itself is a revelation.
LightRevelationItself
Nowhere in the job description of an artist is the requirement that I must validate your taste.
JobArtistTasteNowhereMustYour
I hope that when you see my work, you are looking at yourself looking.
WorkHopeYourselfLookingYouSee
I apprehend light - I make events that shape or contain light.
LightEventsShapeMakeContain
Usually we are illuminating things instead of looking at the light itself. But I like this quality of the light being the revelation.
LightQualityLookingRevelation
At Roden Crater, I was interested in taking the cultural artifice of art out into the natural surround. I wanted the work to be enfolded in nature in such a way that light from the sun, moon and stars empowered the spaces. I wanted to bring culture to the natural surround as if one was designing a garden.
WorkNatureStarsArtLightCulture
There are very few religious experiences that aren't explained using the vocabulary of light.
LightVocabularyExperiencesFew
The sky always seems to be out there, away from us. I like to bring it down in close contact with us, so you feel you are in it. We feel we are at the bottom of this ocean of air; we are actually on a planet.
SkyOceanFeelYouDownAir
We have spent billions to go to the moon - we go to this lesser satellite called the moon and say we are in space, but we are in space right now; we just don't feel ourselves to be in space. Some forms of art and some forms of spirituality do give us that sense.
ArtSpaceMoonFeelGoSay
I feel my work is made for one being, one individual. You could say that's me, but that's not really true. It's for an idealized viewer.
WorkMeFeelYouSayTrue
Sometimes I'm kind of cranky coming to see something. I saw the Mona Lisa when it was in L.A., saw it for 13 seconds and had to move on.
Move OnSometimesKindSeeComing
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