Larry Bell

Larry Bell, born in 1939, is an influential American artist renowned for his exploration of the properties of light and surface. Living and working between Los Angeles, CA, and Taos, New Mexico, Bell has a career marked by innovation and experimentation that spans over six decades.

Bell began his artistic journey in 1959 with abstract, monochrome paintings on paper and shaped canvases, which depicted the silhouette of a box in isometric projection. His fascination with spatial ambiguity led him to substitute panes of glass and mirrors for parts of his designs, ultimately evolving into sculptural constructions made of wood and glass. This period laid the foundation for Bell’s iconic glass cubes and standing glass-panel wall sculptures.

From 1963 onward, Bell’s work with light and space took a bold turn with his development of the vacuum deposition technique. This innovation involved applying thin films to clear glass panels, allowing for the interplay of reflected, transmitted, and absorbed light. His glass cubes, particularly when presented on transparent pedestals, appeared to float, challenging traditional notions of mass, volume, and gravity.

Between 1968 and 1969, Bell expanded his artistic horizons by commissioning a coating device to produce large-scale environmental works. The resulting sculptural installations used large sheets of glass made partly mirrored and partly transparent, creating ethereal, weightless volumes. His interior wall environments, such as The Black Room, were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1969) and the Tate Gallery in London (1970).

In 1978, Bell shifted his focus to paper, developing a body of work known as ‘Vapor Drawings.’ These pieces reflected and absorbed light without transmission. By the early 1980s, he began combining different surface qualities within the ‘Vapor Drawing’ series, resulting in the ‘Mirage works,’ which created illusions through heat and light interactions.

Bell’s ‘Light knot’ sculptures are a recent development from the ‘Mirage works.’ Using Mylar, these sculptures are fluid, curvaceous-shaped sheets of polyester film coated with metals and quartz. The reflective sheets are twisted into knots and hung from ceilings, creating dynamic mirrors that reflect their surroundings.

Larry Bell’s work has been exhibited extensively, including group exhibitions like Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler at Tate Britain, London (1970) and Phenomenal at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2011). His solo exhibitions include shows at the Pasadena Art Museum, California (1972), Fort Worth Art Museum, Dallas, Texas (1975 and 1977), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1986), Denver Art Museum, Colorado (1995), Carré d’Art Musée d’art Contemporain de Nîmes, France (2011), and The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2014).

Larry Bell’s innovative exploration of light and surface continues to influence and inspire the contemporary art world, solidifying his legacy as a pioneering figure in modern art.