James Turrell: The Philanthropic Version of Michelangelo’s Almighty

“Let there be light,” it says in the biblical Genesis, for the Creator God such a saying is sufficient, while mortals have to invent quite a few things for it. Especially when it’s supposed to turn into a magical glow like James Turrell’s, who turns 80 this Saturday and doesn’t even think about slowly dimming down his constantly new light-space installations.

The deeply religious Turrell refers to medieval mysticism

From Argentina to Vorarlberg and from Uruguay to Berlin, it’s in demand all over the world, so you don’t just sit back and relax. And finally, his magnum opus isn’t even finished yet. Since 1974, Turrell has been digging through an extinct volcano, Roden Crater, in the middle of the Arizona desert. This creates corridors, chambers, shafts and astronomically calculated openings through which one can experience the sky and this almost incomprehensible spectacle of the moon, sun and stars in a particularly intense way.

That has always fascinated him. It could never go far enough, which is why the son of a Quaker family from Los Angeles got his pilot’s license at the age of just 16. There are no limits up there, which is ultimately also a principle of his art. Whoever enters the new chapel or “Chapel for Luke and his Scribe Lucius the Cyrene” in the Diocesan Museum in Freising soon loses the orientation between soft yellow, pink, purple, green and countless intermediate tones. Where the premises end is no longer discernible anyway. This is what infinity must feel like, which Meister Eckhart raves about: God is connected with eternal light. And the deeply religious Turrell keeps referring to the medieval mystic.

The studied psychologist Turrell works on his productions

Of course, a little more is needed for the magic of the artist, namely technology. So Turrell began to experiment with slide projectors and to regulate the incidence of light with open and covered windows. The fellow students grabbed their heads. But the qualified mathematician and psychologist worked and fine-tuned his productions until they became a mystery to the human eye.

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Colored light shines out of nowhere, changing nuances and intensity, nothing flickers, there are neither caesuras nor sprinklings, and if there is, then it invents the retina, or rather the brain. Neither cables nor the origin of this abracadabra should be perceptible. At some point you stop looking, surrender yourself to this mystery, tricked, tottering, infatuated and enraptured. Who needs drugs when it’s so clean?

Turrells shows his art in the Swarovski Crystal Worlds

On the other hand, the public collections have to ensure that visitors are safe in these Turrellian light baths, the master speaks of “Ganzfeldern”. In Freising, museum employees stand at the entrance and catch those who stagger. In the Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens near Innsbruck, where “Umbra” functions like an opening cabinet of curiosities, you have the wide exit behind you – and a bench. The supervisors have to be more careful here that nobody stumbles forward over a discreet knee-high barrier or deliberately climbs over it to simply see where these close and yet so far away light sources are located.

Turrell doesn’t like to look at the cards. The main thing is that the combination of light waves and architectural tricks runs smoothly. And while Roden Crater’s handpicked audience, admitted with at least a $5,000 donation, cheered on a “life-changing event,” others felt downright erotic. At the Turrell show in Hanover, couples were surprised to have sex with a good deal of regularity. Even the installation of cameras could not prevent this.

A hike to James Turrell’s “Skyspace” at Tannegg

At an altitude of 1700 meters, you tend not to come up with such ideas. A few weeks ago it was freezing cold in Oberlech am Arlberg and you needed proper shoes to hike through the snow to the “Skyspace” on Tannegg. The dome of the oval main room, set into the hill, can be opened. And just before sunrise and after sunset, the walls and ceiling are bathed in Turrell light that changes in color. The sky is close enough to touch, the imaginary spaceship takes off quietly.

And if real snow then falls through the hatch, there can be no further increase. At least not in the mountains. That may be different in the remoteness of Arizona. It is not without reason that the good Lord with the cowboy hat is building his cathedral of light right here. There is no end in sight, but 80 is not old for a magician either.

Info: Freising Diocesan Museum: “Chapel for Luke”, Tue to Sun 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2 – 3 p.m., www.dimu-freising.de; Swarovski Crystal Worlds: “Umbra” daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. www.kristallwelten.swarovski.com; Lech am Arlberg: “Skyspace Lech” until May 31, 9 am – 6 pm, June until the end of November 1 hour before sunrise until 1 hour after sunset, www.skyspace-lech.com.