Join The Collection to save, track, and explore works like this.

James Turrell — Sky Space
James Turrell — Sky Space
James Turrell — Sky Space
James Turrell — Sky Space
James Turrell

Sky Space

2006

Carved from Mönchsberg granite, this diminutive sculptural work distills one of James Turrell's most celebrated spatial concepts into an object held in the hands. Measuring just 16.5 by 18.5 by 15.5 centimeters, the piece renders a Skyspace in miniature form, presenting the characteristic aperture that defines the artist's large-scale architectural installations. Those immersive chambers, built across twenty-two countries and seventeen American states, are precisely proportioned rooms open to the sky above, inviting viewers into a heightened awareness of light, atmosphere, and the act of seeing itself. Here, that expansive premise is concentrated into a singular object of remarkable material weight and conceptual clarity, signed by the artist and donated by him through the courtesy of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Turrell has spent more than five decades investigating how light shapes human perception, famously describing his practice as one without object, image, or focus. A licensed pilot with over twelve thousand hours of flight time, he has long treated the sky as both studio and raw material, and the Skyspace series embodies that relationship most directly. The aperture cut through a ceiling or, in this case, through a block of dense stone orients the viewer toward the shifting conditions of natural light and sky, collapsing the boundary between interior space and the infinite above. The philosophical provocation embedded in his work, turning perception back on itself so that the viewer becomes aware of their own looking, translates with striking intimacy at this scale. Available through the BFAMI Benefit Auction, this work presents a rare opportunity to acquire a tangible, artist-signed object connected to one of the most rigorous and poetic bodies of work in contemporary art. The choice of Mönchsberg granite lends the piece a geological permanence that sits in productive tension with Turrell's immaterial subject matter, light and sky and the fleeting nature of perception. For collectors drawn to conceptually grounded work with a strong institutional and critical history, this sculpture carries both the artist's sustained vision and the tactile presence of an object built to endure.

Medium
Granite from Mönchsberg
Overall
Signed
Yes

Start the Discussion

Request access to join the discussion

About this work

James Turrell, Sky Space, 2006

Carved from Mönchsberg granite, this diminutive sculptural work distills one of James Turrell's most celebrated spatial concepts into an object held in the hands. Measuring just 16.5 by 18.5 by 15.5 centimeters, the piece renders a Skyspace in miniature form, presenting the characteristic aperture that defines the artist's large-scale architectural installations. Those immersive chambers, built across twenty-two countries and seventeen American states, are precisely proportioned rooms open to the sky above, inviting viewers into a heightened awareness of light, atmosphere, and the act of seeing itself. Here, that expansive premise is concentrated into a singular object of remarkable material weight and conceptual clarity, signed by the artist and donated by him through the courtesy of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Turrell has spent more than five decades investigating how light shapes human perception, famously describing his practice as one without object, image, or focus. A licensed pilot with over twelve thousand hours of flight time, he has long treated the sky as both studio and raw material, and the Skyspace series embodies that relationship most directly. The aperture cut through a ceiling or, in this case, through a block of dense stone orients the viewer toward the shifting conditions of natural light and sky, collapsing the boundary between interior space and the infinite above. The philosophical provocation embedded in his work, turning perception back on itself so that the viewer becomes aware of their own looking, translates with striking intimacy at this scale. Available through the BFAMI Benefit Auction, this work presents a rare opportunity to acquire a tangible, artist-signed object connected to one of the most rigorous and poetic bodies of work in contemporary art. The choice of Mönchsberg granite lends the piece a geological permanence that sits in productive tension with Turrell's immaterial subject matter, light and sky and the fleeting nature of perception. For collectors drawn to conceptually grounded work with a strong institutional and critical history, this sculpture carries both the artist's sustained vision and the tactile presence of an object built to endure.

Medium
Granite from Mönchsberg
Dimensions
overall: 16.5 x 18.5 x 15.5 cm
Year
2006
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
BFAMI Benefit Auction

More works by James Turrell

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro, Nicholas Blum, Ryan