Robert Irwin, the pioneering American installation artist known for his exploration of perception and the conditional in art, passed away on October 25, 2023, at Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California, due to heart failure. He was 95 years old.
Robert W. Irwin was born on September 12, 1928, in Long Beach, California, United States of America. He became a pioneer whose work helped to define the aesthetics and conceptual issues of the West Coast Light and Space movement.
The New York Times reported that Pace Gallery founder and chairman Arne Glimcher said in a statement that “In my long career, I have been privileged to work with some of the greatest artists of the 20th century and develop deep friendships with them, but none greater or closer than Robert Irwin. In our 57-year relationship, his art and philosophy have extended my perception, shaped my taste, and made me realize what art could be”
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles mounted the first retrospective of Robert W. Irwin’s work in 1993; in 2008, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego presented another, spanning fifty years of his career.