Cover for Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change
Robert Irwin, one of the most influential postwar American artists and a pioneering figure of California Light and Space Art, is the subject of this book that traces his development and remarkable accomplishments in the 1960s.
Edited by Evelyn C. Hankins, with contributions by Evelyn C. Hankins, Robert Irwin, Susan F. Lake, Julia Langenbacher, Rachel Rivenc, Matthew Simms, and Jennifer Licht Winkworth
Designed by Roy Brooks, Fold Four, Inc.
Published 2016 | ISBN: 9783791355146

The first publication to focus exclusively on Irwin’s extraordinary trajectory during the 1960s, this book explores how the artist moved from creating small-scale abstract paintings to temporary installations that responded to the specific circumstances of a given site. During this relatively brief interval, Irwin methodically interrogated the most essential premises of art and, in the process, ultimately redefined what a work of art could be, proposing that art not be limited to objects but be considered a way of seeing. Through its discussion of Irwin’s paintings, sculptures, and his new site-conditioned scrim installation created in response to the Hirshhorn’s distinctive round architecture, this publication immerses the reader in the artist’s groundbreaking investigations into the nature of color, light, and perception. The essays offer fresh insights into Irwin’s art while highlighting his pivotal role in the broader aesthetic developments in the 1960s. The book also includes text by Irwin.