![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2015/Robert-Irwin/72451-medium-res-1.jpg?w=960&h=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709226317&s=8f66dd3d933c36ea1354316cdeb3fa87 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2015/Robert-Irwin/72451-medium-res-1.jpg?w=1280&h=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709226317&s=30d569efbe132850df37dfb49b5c589b 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2015/Robert-Irwin/72451-medium-res-1.jpg?w=1600&h=1200&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709226317&s=eb056c7ded06458d44d11ddc1503aa41 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2015/Robert-Irwin/72451-medium-res-1.jpg?w=2360&h=1770&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709226317&s=a6c68322e9fdb8a6a86b30fcd808ee0a 2360w)
2 x 2 x 2 x 2
Robert Irwin
2 x 2 x 2 x 2
23 September – 15 November 2015
Dates
23 September – 15 November 2015
Since the 1970s, Irwin has used light and subtle alterations of space to refocus the habituated eye, encouraging an awareness of the visual field around us.
White Cube presented 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, an exhibition by Robert Irwin, one of the pivotal figures in recent American art. Irwin’s oeuvre has spanned more than 60 years and includes painting, sculpture, installation and large-scale architectural projects. Minimal and perceptual, his works attempt to highlight particular spatial situations, acting like brackets for our phenomenological experience. This exhibition brought together three groups of works, including fluorescent works, transparent acrylic columns and a diptych.
Since the 1970s, Irwin has used light and subtle alterations of space to refocus the habituated eye, encouraging an awareness of the visual field around us. He has said that ‘the pure subject of art is human perception’: a conditional activity determined by context. In the ‘cuts’, Irwin creates a sequential experience of colour for the viewer, with a series of long, coloured fluorescent tubes placed on the wall in vertical lines. Each measuring 7 by 8 feet, the tubes are covered with various coloured gels to create an array of blended hues of intensity and weight. As he has previously stated ‘all colour is equal in its ‘place’ … all colour can be used with a feel for its correctness. Colour has the ability to put life in inanimate situations.’
A diptych - Black Painting (2015) - was also displayed in the North Galleries. Two monochrome black squares, made with multiple layers of urethane paint and lacquer on honeycomb aluminium, are highly reflective, making the mirrored image the subject, while at the same time suggesting a void within the space. Irwin's investigation of colour relates to the work of Josef Albers and Barnett Newman but here particularly to Kazimir Malevich's Black Square (1913).
Two acrylic columns in the 9 x 9 x 9 gallery exploited both the verticality and volume of the architectural space. Irwin first conceived of these works as early as 1969. While almost invisible under certain light conditions they both obstruct and frame their surroundings, through a minimal interruption of its internal space. Irwin has said that the columns ‘sit on a delicate edge’, creating conditions where ‘you don’t think about whether it’s art or not art. It’s just about what you’re seeing or not seeing.’
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/1_Robert-Irwin-Light-and-Space-II-1-2008-HERO.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414829&s=bebd595776f5fccbc6008ec62b5fe4c7 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/1_Robert-Irwin-Light-and-Space-II-1-2008-HERO.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414829&s=09d64874b3e005a920b9d4cdcfb30371 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/1_Robert-Irwin-Light-and-Space-II-1-2008-HERO.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414829&s=cd4516c4334c36255ac8e981d17dc7cd 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/1_Robert-Irwin-Light-and-Space-II-1-2008-HERO.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414829&s=0c7bdf77d531be734c298e1daf70fcf5 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/1_Robert-Irwin-Light-and-Space-II-1-2008-HERO.jpg?w=2360&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414829&s=73813f557735275306714c8899ad2bac 2360w)
Robert Irwin
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