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Study for Craters (Overall Site Plan with Survey Net)

James Turrell

Contemporary Art

James Turrell’s art centers on the perception of light in architectural spaces. He employed aerial landscape views in works related to his most ambitious site project, an “observatory” within the Roden Crater in Arizona. Turrell chose the site during aerial flyovers in the late 1970s, and since then he has been constructing viewing spaces that admit the natural light of the sun and stars in various ways to create specific perceptual effects. A meeting of science and art, Turrell’s work draws on the power of place, geologic time, and humanity’s long relationship to celestial phenomena.
MEDIUM Photo-emulsion on wax and mylar with ink and wax pastels
DATES 1987
DIMENSIONS 58 1/2 x 72 3/8 in. (148.6 x 183.8 cm) Other (part a): 33 1/4 x 72 3/8 in. (84.5 x 183.8 cm) Other (part b): 25 3/8 x 72 3/8 in. (64.5 x 183.8 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed lower right on bottom panel: "James Turrell 1987"
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 1990.42.2a-b
CREDIT LINE Gift of Harry Kahn
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION James Turrell (American, born 1943). Study for Craters (Overall Site Plan with Survey Net), 1987. Photo-emulsion on wax and mylar with ink and wax pastels, 58 1/2 x 72 3/8 in. (148.6 x 183.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Harry Kahn, 1990.42.2a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.42.2a-b_view1_bw.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 1990.42.2a-b_view1_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
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