Robert Irwin: Site Determined

The University Art Museum (UAM) at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is proud to present Robert Irwin: Site Determined, the first museum exhibition dedicated to the creative process of one of the most significant American artists of the postwar generation. Visitors are invited to explore four decades of Irwin’s outdoor environmental projects through rarely exhibited drawings and architectural models, some of which have never before been seen publicly. Site-determined art, Irwin has explained, “draws all of its cues (reasons for being) from its surroundings.” This exhibition promises insights into Irwin’s working process as he developed aesthetic responses to such cues, including his newly conserved Window Wall on the CSULB campus, Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles to his most recent site-determined work, Untitled (dawn to dusk) in Marfa, Texas.

This exhibition is organized by the University Art Museum, CSULB and is curated by Dr. Matthew Simms, Professor of Art History, CSULB. Simms holds a PhD in Art History from Harvard University (1998). He is the author of the first scholarly monograph on Irwin’s art and career, Robert Irwin: A Conditional Art (Yale, 2016) and editor of Notes Toward a Conditional Art: The Writings of Robert Irwin (Getty, 2011). Simms conducted a landmark oral history interview with Irwin under the auspices of the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC (2014).

About the catalogue
A richly illustrated catalogue, also titled Robert Irwin: Site Determined, is available for purchase and is published by the University Art Museum, CSULB and DelMonico Books•Prestel. Robert Irwin: Site Determined is the first book to focus on the role drawings and models have played in the artist’s creative process. It includes historical and interpretive essays written by specialists on Irwin’s art, Dr. Matthew Simms, Sally Yard, and Ed Schad, with a foreword by UAM Director, Kimberli Meyer. To purchase, please refer to the exhibitions page. 

About Robert Irwin
For over six decades, Robert Irwin (b. 1928, Long Beach, California) has explored perception as the fundamental issue of art. Irwin, who began his career as a painter in the 1950s and became a pioneer of the “Light and Space” movement in the 1960s, has, through a continual breaking down of the frame, come to regard the role of art as “conditional”—working within and responding to the specific surrounding world of experience. He has conceived over fifty-five site-conditional projects, including the Central Gardens for the Getty Center, Los Angeles (1992–98) and the architectural and grounds design for Dia:Beacon, New York (1999–2003). His large-scale permanent installation at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2001–16) is the first free-standing structure devoted exclusively to his work. Irwin received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius” Award in 1984, and was elected as an Academician at the National Academy in 2012. Irwin is represented by Pace Gallery and Sprüth Magers.

Acknowledgements
Exhibition, publication, and programming funding was granted by the Contemporary Collectors of Orange County, the Pasadena Art Alliance, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Port of Long Beach, the Arts Council for Long Beach, the City of Long Beach, and the Miller Foundation.  Additional support was provided by the Museum Studies Program at the CSULB; the CSULB Instructionally Related Activities Fund; CSULB Associate Students, Inc.; the Ware Endowment; the Charles and Elizabeth Brooks Endowment; the Constance W. Glenn Fund for Exhibition and Education Programs; Dr. Ronald and Sylvia Hartman, Donna Mills, Bryan Cooke; and Daryl and Sandy Phillips, Phillips Steel Company; Larry Bell.

The “Window Wall” conservation project is made possible by generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Elaine Ridder, Tom and Barbara Peckenpaugh, Dr. Ronald and Sylvia Hartman, Michael and Susan Davis, Michael and Lynn Stearns, Helen and Stanley Molles, and Judy Ross. The UAM is also indebted to the Getty Conservation Institute, Rosa Lowinger and Associates, and Facilities Management at CSULB for partnering with us on the conservation.

Related Events
Opening: January 28, 4–6pm, free and open to the public
UAM @ Noon gallery talk with curator Matthew Simms: February 21, 12–1pm 
In conversation: Practice, Process, and Projects with Walter Hood: March 8, 7–9pm 
In conversation: An Unfolding in Time with Sally Yard: April 11, 7–9pm 

CSULB visitor directions: driving directions / CSULB maps / local public transit map
Parking guidance: general parking / purchase pre-paid permits online via Parking Portal; permits also available at kiosks in Lot 17