Larry Bell

F 55, 2009

Long Lake Estates

F57, 2009

Long Lake Estates

Larry Bell was born in Chicago in 1939, and currently resides in Taos, New Mexico.

Bell was one of the key figures to emerge as part of the 1960s Light and Space movement, making spare, geometric sculptures that married Minimalism with the high-tech materials then appearing in Southern California’s aerospace industry. Using such materials as resin, glass, neon, and fluorescent lights, Bell developed a style of art that came to be known as “Finish Fetish” due to its high-gloss polish and sheer surfaces, which reflected a Los Angeles aesthetic of Hollywood and technology.

Bell’s earliest works were drawings and paintings of cubes, which led to glass cube sculptures, and then to explorations of the passing of light through cube sculptures.  He used a technique whereby thin films were added to the clear glass panels by way of vacuum deposition. This plating process resulted in a coating that allows light to be reflected, transmitted and absorbed simultaneously. The glass surfaces almost disappear, creating colorful illusions. In 1978 Bell began experimenting with depositing the coatings on paper, finding in the process that the paper did not transmit light but only reflected or absorbed it. This body of work, known as ‘Vapor Drawings’, continues to this day and is represented in these works.

Links

2016 Lifetime Achievement Honoree: Larry Bell

Works appear in

• The Museum of Modern Art, New York

• The Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo

• Art Institute of Chicago

• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

• Los Angeles County Museum

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

• Museum Ludwig, Cologne

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

• Tate Gallery, London

• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

• Whitney Museum of American Art