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Robert Irwin — Untitled
Robert Irwin

Untitled

1965

A curved aluminum disc, coated in luminous acrylic lacquer, hovers just off the wall in this pivotal 1965 work by Robert Irwin. The painting commands attention not through conventional imagery but through an almost atmospheric quality of light, the surface shifting in hue and intensity as the viewer moves across its face. Irwin achieved this effect through meticulous application of lacquer in carefully calibrated gradations, dissolving the hard boundary between object and environment and drawing the surrounding space into the work itself. This piece belongs to a formative body of work from the mid-1960s in which Irwin was systematically investigating perception and presence, dismantling the idea of the painting as a fixed, self-contained image. The shaped aluminum support eliminates the right angle and the corner, those familiar anchors of pictorial convention, so that the work reads simultaneously as painting, sculpture, and phenomenon. The shadow cast by the disc becomes an extension of the composition, changing throughout the day as ambient light shifts. Works from this period are held in the permanent collections of major institutions, and this example, currently on offer through MCA Chicago, represents Irwin at one of his most concentrated and influential moments. The signed work arrives without a frame, as the artist intended, since any framing would interrupt the perceptual exchange between object, light, and wall that constitutes the core experience Irwin sought to create. For collectors serious about postwar American art and the history of Light and Space, this is a rare and significant opportunity.

Medium
Acrylic lacquer on shaped aluminum
Signed
Yes

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About this work

Robert Irwin, Untitled, 1965

A curved aluminum disc, coated in luminous acrylic lacquer, hovers just off the wall in this pivotal 1965 work by Robert Irwin. The painting commands attention not through conventional imagery but through an almost atmospheric quality of light, the surface shifting in hue and intensity as the viewer moves across its face. Irwin achieved this effect through meticulous application of lacquer in carefully calibrated gradations, dissolving the hard boundary between object and environment and drawing the surrounding space into the work itself. This piece belongs to a formative body of work from the mid-1960s in which Irwin was systematically investigating perception and presence, dismantling the idea of the painting as a fixed, self-contained image. The shaped aluminum support eliminates the right angle and the corner, those familiar anchors of pictorial convention, so that the work reads simultaneously as painting, sculpture, and phenomenon. The shadow cast by the disc becomes an extension of the composition, changing throughout the day as ambient light shifts. Works from this period are held in the permanent collections of major institutions, and this example, currently on offer through MCA Chicago, represents Irwin at one of his most concentrated and influential moments. The signed work arrives without a frame, as the artist intended, since any framing would interrupt the perceptual exchange between object, light, and wall that constitutes the core experience Irwin sought to create. For collectors serious about postwar American art and the history of Light and Space, this is a rare and significant opportunity.

Medium
Acrylic lacquer on shaped aluminum
Year
1965
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
MCA Chicago

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