Larry Bell and his evolution toward Installation Art

Larry Bell - Untitled, 1964
Hirshhorn Museum
tinted glass and brass

A brass cube on a transparent pedestal.

I like to think of my glass constructions as tapestries of reflected and transmitted light, says Larry Bell who has been interested throughout his artistic career to build surfaces that work both as windows and mirrors.

He started with Abstract Expressionist paintings, incorporating fragments of glass in his works. He passed then to the sculpture: cubes resting on glass pedestals (then using also more and more sophisticated materials). The cubes started to be incorporated inside the pedestals, mirroring each other and declaring a much larger virtual space.

The next logical step was the installation art: exploring the way his virtual spaces are mirroring with the environment.

Image from Larry Bell's Virtual Studio

Made for Arolsen, 1992
Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach

(Hirshhorn Museum)

(Contemporary Art)