"These cubes reach out and suck the surroundings in through an ambivalent space. And return them (through reflections) to the viewer.”
In Untitled from 1969, Larry Bell warps spatial perception. Environment and object become one, creating an illusion of weightlessness and luminosity that radically challenges conventional notions of materiality. Though presenting with deceptive simplicity as a clear box – its pristine, coated glass surfaces neatly defined, its plated metal edges sharply delineated – Untitled is an early manifestation of Bell’s career-long phenomenological exploration of reflection, refraction, and the interaction of light. An instrumental figure of the Light and Space Movement that emerged in California between the 1960s and 1970s, Bell dedicated his practice to the perceptual properties of light by experimenting with its interaction with materials and architectural spaces. Untitled perfectly epitomizes Bell’s long, revolutionary engagement with the fabricated glass cube, a signature material and geometric form that has occupied the artist since the early 1960s. Beyond an object, Untitled represents a sensorial event, a complex phenomenon that unfolds spontaneously over time: one’s experience of the present work changes depending upon the angle of viewing, the intensity of light, and the movement around the sculpture, ultimately creating an infinitely dynamic interaction that testifies to Bell’s groundbreaking art historical contribution.
Immersed in the artistic community of 1960s Southern California which included luminaries such as Robert Irwin and John McCracken, Bell developed an unyielding fascination with light and its potential to transform our perception of the physical world. In contrast to contemporaries such as Donald Judd and Carl Andre, who worked primarily in industrial materials such as galvanized iron and lead, Bell willingly embraced novel technologies in the 1960s, best exemplified by his pivotal early Cube sculptures to which Untitled belongs. By adopting thermal evaporation technology into a studio practice, Bell successfully altered the saturation, reflective properties, and coating of his glass medium, creating sculptural cubic prisms that scintillate with the reflections and refractions of light and the illusions of space. As art critic Robert C. Morgan observes, “For Bell, the process of revealing light, including the translucent flow of light within and through his boxes, offered an expressive feature that was simply not accessible in the galvanized cubes of Judd or the metal plates of Andre or any of the heavy-handed epistemology being used to defend the importance of their art.” (Robert C Morgan, “Larry Bell’s Architectonic Light: Early Cubes and Improvisations,” East of Borneo, 28 February 2012 (online))
Executed in coated glass and framed by chrome metallic strips, Untitled arrives at an immaculate state of wholeness and perfection to eliminate any distraction from pure perception. To achieve the subtle tint in his clear glass material, Bell employs a High Vacuum Coating process that binds extremely thin layers of atomized mineral and metal compounds to the glass, creating an intricate gradient surface. Combined with the resolutely minimal elements and geometric form of Untitled, Bell’s means of fabrication align the sculpture with the rigorous principles of Minimalism, which championed simplicity, purity of form, and the elimination of personal expression. Here, Bell exhibits the flawless symmetry of a cuboid form, as pristine, perpendicular lines construct an austere structure that adheres to essential Minimalist rigors.
Bell’s choice of materials in the present work also delicately manipulates light and space in ways that challenge sensorial perception with mesmerizing effect: as light filters through the elevated cube from the transparent base below, it is scattered, refracted, and reflected, creating a ever-changing spectacle of scintillating hues and subtle tonal shifts. Describing this phenomenon, artist Peter Plagen writes, “Cubes—“clear” (the glass coated with electrons of faint, halating rainbow color, or, more accurately, a chemical which bends the traversing light to such effects)...These cubes reach out and suck the surroundings in through an ambivalent space. And return them (through reflections) to the viewer.” (Peter Plagen, “Larry Bell Reassessed,” ARTFORUM, October 1972 (online)) The resulting ethereal quality, akin to a mirage, transforms the physical presence of the cubic sculpture into a transient, ever-changing experience, while the plated metal grounds the piece by framing it, providing a sturdy material lining that contrasts with the ephemeral nature of the glass.
“There is light everywhere. There is space everywhere. There is surface everywhere. All we really see is the light reflected off surfaces, from a wall to an airborne molecule of water floating in space.”
Melding sculptural form with optical experimentation, Bell’s early and intimately-scaled Cube sculptures form a critical precursor to his larger-scale sculptures while exhibiting his superlative technical skill and innovation. While art historians today celebrate the artist as a forefront member of the Light and Space movement, Bell himself is quick to counter: “I do not believe there is a Light and Space movement!,” he has said. “There is light everywhere. There is space everywhere. There is surface everywhere. All we really see is the light reflected off surfaces, from a wall to an airborne molecule of water floating in space.” (the artist quoted in: Anna Dickey and Stephanie Bailey, “Larry Bell Talks Spontaneous Improvisation,” OCULA, 16 July 2017 (online)) A sublime meditation on the omnipresence of these exact physical properties, Untitled is a superlative example of Bell’s groundbreaking engagements with the possibilities of perception.
