James Turrell

[JChoate]

James Turrell was 16 years old in 1959 when Wright died, so their creative paths never crossed. To speculate, it might’ve been interesting had they known each other, to see how Wright would’ve reacted to Turrell’s art. Turrell’s Roden Crater is located in high desert near Flagstaff, engaging the Arizona landscape, different but also proximate to Wright’s experiments at TWest.

There was an installation by Turrell at the Guggenheim in 2013. Among other things, it was an interesting reduction, or perhaps elaboration, of Wright’s ideas. “Reduction” in that it reduced form to cleaner simplicity, and “elaboration” in that it focused more subtly and extensively on the relation of light to that form.
Anyway, here’s the short video from the Guggenheim exhibit that sets the table. Wonder what Wright would’ve thought of it. (I suspect he would’ve liked it, or at least found it interesting):

https://youtu.be/MVoMJHSNyI0

[JChoate]

Then, in this interview at the 5:15 mark, Charlie Rose remarks on the combination of Turrell’s work within FLW’s space..

https://youtu.be/_bvg6kaWIeo