Robert Irwin was raised in Long Beach, by the Pacific Ocean, under the California sun. He began his career in the 1950s as an Abstract Expressionist painter, but in the early 1960s an incipient West Coast art trend changed his trajectory. Artists in Southern California were looking to the surf, sun, and shadows for inspiration. Irwin’s site-specific light installations helped turn Light and Space into a movement. At 93, the artist has created a new installation at Kraftwerk Berlin, a massive Brutalist venue built during the decade when Irwin first explored light and space. Glowing fluorescent tubes, geometrically arranged on a high white wall, comprise the largest piece Irwin has shown in Europe. —J.D.

Robert Irwin Light and Space
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Kraftwerk Berlin / Berlin / Art
Kraftwerk Berlin / Berlin / Art
Robert Irwin, “Light and Space,” 2021 © VG Bild-Kunst. Photo: Timo Ohler.
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