Larry Bell (artist)
He is a grant recipient from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and his artworks are found in the collections of many major cultural institutions.
This group also includes, among others, artists James Turrell, John McCracken, Peter Alexander, Robert Irwin and Craig Kauffman.
On the occasion of the Tate Gallery's exhibit Three Artists from Los Angeles: Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler, Michael Compton wrote the following to describe the effect of Bell's artwork: At various times and particularly in the 1960s some artists have worked near what could be called the upper limits of perceptions, that is, where the eye is on the point of being overwhelmed by a superabundance of stimulation and is in danger of losing its power to control it...
[3][better source needed][2] He followed friends like Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Ken Price, and Craig Kauffman to the beach.
[4] He found representation at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, together with Edward Ruscha, Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston.
[5]From the shadow box pieces, Bell moved on to begin what is perhaps his most recognizable body of work, namely cube sculptures that rest on transparent pedestals.
The earliest examples frequently featured "the systematic use of modular internal divisions (ellipses, parallelograms, checker and hexagonal arrangements)",[6] and used a variety of materials including formica, brass, and wood.
"Hewn from remaindered bits of glass salvaged at the Burbank frame shop where he worked while studying at Chouinard, Bell's sculptures set the artist apart from his contemporaries.
In viewing the cubes, their suspension at torso height on clear pedestals designed by Bell allows the viewer to look up through them from underneath, as well as perceiving them from all four sides and from above.
Bell's sculptures have the effect of reading as self-contained objects while simultaneously drawing in their surroundings and proactively changing their environment.
His inclusion in the Tate Gallery's "Three Artists from Los Angeles" exhibition in London in 1970 (alongside Irwin and Doug Wheeler,) further cemented Bell's stature as one of the era's preeminent practitioners—on the West Coast and beyond.
Bell describes the advantages of this process and medium: Masking the paper with thin PET film strips to expose areas related to the shape of the page plane enabled me to generate images spontaneously.
He showed these drawings to architect Frank Gehry while the two were collaborating on proposals for a home commissioned by arts patron and insurance executive Peter B. Lewis.
The project eventually led to Bell's creation of a concept narrative for the figures based on a fictionalized mythology of the early (pre-Babylonian) civilization of Sumer.
Bell continues his work with the cube to this day; more recent ones are made only of glass and have beveled edges, as opposed to plates that sit within a metal frame.
