Next week marks the Texas premiere of A Desert of Pure Feeling, a documentary about the career of artist Robert Irwin.
Poster for “A Desert of Pure Feeling” by Jennifer Lane.
The 90-minute film by director Jennifer Lane will debut as part of this year’s South-by-Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Austin. Ms. Lane is an artist and filmmaker who, along with her partner David Hollander, has co-produced films about a number of artists. She is the co-founder and co-director of CineMarfa, a film festival that brings artist-made and rare archival, experimental, documentary, and narrative films to West Texas.
The press release describes the film as, “an in-depth look at Irwin’s contributions to the history of art in the 20th and 21st centuries… investigat[ing] the philosophical and conceptual questions related to experience and subjectivity that have guided the artist’s work throughout his life.”
Robert Irwin, “untitled (dawn to dusk),” 2016. Permanent collection, the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas. Photo by Alex Marks. © 2020 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Though he began his career as a painter, in the 1960s Mr. Irwin was a leading figure of the Los Angeles-based Light and Space movement. Mr. Irwin designed the Central Garden at the Getty Center, Los Angeles (1997); developed the master plan for Dia:Beacon (2003); and created a palm garden for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010). In 2016, the Chinati Foundation opened the only permanent, freestanding structure conceived and designed as a complete artwork by Mr. Irwin. Notably, the Dallas-based Rachofsky Collection has three pieces by Mr. Irwin in its holdings, including a convex disc piece that is a fractional gift to the Dallas Museum of Art and a permanent site-specific land work in the front yard of the Rachofsky House.
Robert Irwin, “Tilted Planes,” 1999, earth, grass, and Cor-ten steel,720 x 720 inches. The Rachofsky Collection
Ms. Lane’s film will be screened at the Rollins Theatre at The Long Center on March 12 at 5:30 pm, and again at the Alamo Lamar A on March 14 at 9:15 pm. To learn more and to purchase tickets, visit the SXSW website.
