A pioneer in light and land art, James Turrell is best known for his transformation of a massive crater in the Arizona desert into a celestial observatory.

While preparing his land project, Turrell began making “skyspaces” — light installations that bring the heavens into exhibition spaces — and turned his investigations of projected colored light, backlit planes of tinted glass, and strikingly minimal holograms into ever-growing perceptual wonders in galleries and museums worldwide.

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Pop quiz: what is 1500 feet long, 15 feet wide, coiled into a counterclockwise spiral deep in Mormon territory, and made of mud, salt crystal, and rock? If you’ve ever taken ARTH101, you know the answer is Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, a seminal piece from the Land Art movement constructed in 1970 in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. In the 39 years since its installation, Spiral Jetty has faced a number of threats to its existence, from natural erosion to proposed oil drilling by Amoco. Last week Modern Art Notes reported on a new industrial challenge to the site, as Great Salt Lake Minerals hopes to expand its operations by 91,000 acres, essentially evaporating the lake bed upon which the earthwork rests. Read More »