James Turrell’s Meeting at MoMA PS1, one of his site-specific Skyspace installations, has re-opened after a three-year restoration and renovation. The installation, located inside the museum, “…invites viewers to gaze upwards toward an unobstructed view of the sky.” The piece is significant for a number of reasons: It is the first Skyspace Turrell created in the United States and the only public one on view in the New York area, as well as being the second Skyspace the artist created.
According to the press release, “The restoration and renovation, undertaken with the close involvement of the artist, includes a new lighting program at sunrise and sunset that employs modulated colored light. This is produced by energy-saving LED fixtures that, as in other more recent Turrell works, are controlled by a computer program that automatically adjusts the timing of the sequence to the setting of the sun as it shifts throughout the year. In its renovated form, the space is capable of producing both the multi-colored interior lighting of the new program as well as the static yellow tones emitted by the original tungsten bulbs [lamps]. In addition, the project has repaired weather deterioration around the oculus, as well as components of the mechanical roof that covers the work when it is not open. Turrell also designed new, more durable teak wood seating.”
P.S.1 founder Alanna Heiss originally commissioned Meeting in 1976 for the museum’s opening, although the installation was not realized until 1980. Turrell continued to make modifications to the piece through 1986, and it has served as the prototype for the numerous Skyspaces that Turrell has since created around the world. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of MoMA PS1, and in tandem with the restoration/renovation of the artwork, “…The Museum of Modern Art has acquired Meeting as a gift of Mark and Lauren Booth … Mark and Lauren Booth also provided major support for the restoration and renovation of the installation.”
“One of Turrell's first Skyspaces, Meeting is an urban site, a destination for the public, and an inspiring point of departure for generations of artists. We are pleased to bring this important work back on view in a new, 21st century iteration that adds a dynamic lighting program, allowing the artist to realize more dramatic effects against the sky's atmospheric light,” said Klaus Biesenbach, Director, MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large, The Museum of Modern Art in a prepared statement.
“Meeting opened the museum to the city. In cutting a hole through the roof, Turrell used the building to reframe a familiar subject—the sky over our heads—creating a serene space in which we can contemplate our relationship to the world.” said Peter Eleey, Curator and Associate Director of Exhibitions and Programs, MoMA PS1. “The new lighting programs he has added focus our awareness on the moments when the sky is most expressive, as it transitions between day and night.”
James Turrell’s (American, b. 1943) work has used light as a primary medium to explore “…fundamental questions about the nature of human perception by rendering tangible the act of vision.” One of the key figures in the “Light and Space” art movement during the 1960s, “…Turrell began making cuts in the walls of his studio during this time, allowing exterior light to enter in carefully controlled ways.” For a piece commissioned by Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo at his home in Varese, Italy, in 1974-1975, Turrell made a “permanent cut in the architecture” of the villa “…puncturing the ceiling with a rectangular aperture that opened directly onto the sky overhead.” This would become the precedent for Turrell’s Skyspaces, which are “…carefully designed rooms or freestanding pavilions with precise overhead cuts that open onto unobstructed views of the sky.”
Turrell’s work has been exhibited around the world. In 2013 – 2014, the trajectory of the artist’s career was seen in a trio of museum retrospectives at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
To celebrate the re-opening, MoMA PS1 is hosting 20 special after-hours sunset viewings from Oct. 8 to Nov. 5, 2016. After that, visitors will be able to view the new sunset lighting program during regular museum hours. For ticket information go to http://mo.ma/turrell. Visitors are encouraged to share their impressions and images via social media using the hashtag #TurrellMeeting.
