James Turrell

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Lore & Background

James Turrell was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in a Quaker family. He obtained his pilot's license at the age of 16 and later registered as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, flying Buddhist monks out of Chinese-controlled Tibet. Turrell called it "a humanitarian mission" and said he found "some beautiful places to fly." For years he restored antique airplanes to support his "art habit." He received a BA degree from Pomona College in perceptual psychology in 1965 (including the study of the Ganzfeld effect) and also studied mathematics, geology, and astronomy. The following year, Turrell enrolled in the graduate Studio Art program at the University of California, Irvine, where he began making work using light projections. His studies at Irvine were interrupted in 1966, when he was arrested for coaching young men to avoid the Vietnam draft. He spent about a year in jail. In 1973, he received a Master of Arts degree from Claremont Graduate University. In 1979 Turrell acquired an extinct cinder cone volcano located outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Since then he has spent decades moving tons of dirt and building tunnels and apertures to turn this crater into a massive naked-eye observatory for experiencing celestial phenomena. A completion date for the Crater has been announced and pushed back several times since the 1990s. The last time Turrell or his team went on record talking about a completion date, the goal was 2011; but according to a 2013 article in the Los Angeles Times, "nobody volunteers a date any more." Roden Crater has been long shrouded in secrecy and access limited to friends of the artist, although fans have sneaked in without the artist's permission. More recently, a program was established by which devoted fans can gain sanctioned access by completing the "Turrell Tour," which involves seeing a Turrell in 23 countries worldwide, and during May 2015, Roden Crater was open to a select group of 80 people at a cost of $6,500 per person. In 2019, Turrell partnered with the Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts to collaborate on the project, changing the name to the "ASU-Roden Crater Project."

In the 1970s, Turrell began his series of "skyspaces" enclosed spaces open to the sky through an aperture in the roof. A Skyspace is an enclosed room large enough for roughly 15 people. Inside, the viewers sit on benches along the edge to view the sky through an opening in the roof. As a lifelong Quaker, Turrell designed the Live Oak Meeting House for the Society of Friends, with an opening or skyhole in the roof. His work Meeting (1986) at P.S. 1 is a recreation of such a meeting house. In 2013, Turrell created another Quaker skyspace, Greet the Light, at the newly rebuilt Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting in Philadelphia. In a New York Times article, a skyspace is described as a "celestial viewing room designed to create the rather magical illusion that the sky is within reach – stretched like a canvas across an opening in the ceiling."

Reader's Guide

James Turrell's significance lies in his exploration of perception and the nature of light, often creating environments that alter viewers' experience of space and sky. His Roden Crater project, though still unfinished, represents a decades-long effort to merge art, astronomy, and landscape. Turrell does not consider himself an earthworks artist like Robert Smithson or Michael Heizer. "You could say I'm a mound builder," he said. "I make things that take you up into the sky. But it's not about the landforms. I'm working to bring celestial objects like the sun and moon into the spaces that we inhabit." He added: "I apprehend light—I make events that shape or contain light." His skyspaces, which frame the sky through roof openings, have been installed in various locations and reflect his Quaker background. Turrell's innovative use of light and space has earned him numerous accolades, including being named a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. His works, which explore perception and the nature of light, have been exhibited in major museums and public art spaces worldwide. His approach to light as a medium continues to shape discussions of perception and environment in art.

Did You Know?

• Turrell obtained his pilot's license at age 16 and later flew Buddhist monks out of Chinese-controlled Tibet during the Vietnam War.
• He spent about a year in jail after being arrested in 1966 for coaching young men to avoid the Vietnam draft.
• Roden Crater was open to a select group of 80 people in May 2015 at a cost of $6,500 per person.
• Turrell's first light projections were created in 1966 in his Santa Monica studio, the Mendota Hotel.
• He received a BA from Pomona College in perceptual psychology in 1965, including the study of the Ganzfeld effect.