Hol Art Books

Lawrence Weschler's early book on artist Robert Irwin, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, should arguably be considered one of the all-time great works of writing on visual art. It's based largely on a number of conversations Weschler had with the artist from 1976–79, and published in 1982. Long having sat on my own reading list, it was a pleasure to finally pick it up this summer, and to subsequently be led to Weschler's more recent set of Irwin interviews, published in Robert Irwin Getty Garden (copiously illustrated with photographs of the garden by Becky Cohen).

Irwin and Weschler are rare talents in their respective fields. The great pleasure taken in reading these two books, undoubtedly stems from this fortunate pairing.

Robert Irwin was born in 1928 and has spent most of his life in and around Los Angeles. Despite a few years at Otis Art institute and an important early relationship to the artists of the now-infamous Ferus Gallery, Irwin's pursuits always tended toward the solitary and the obsessive. From the beginning of his artistic career, from series to series, he worked tirelessly to sharpen his skills and more importantly, his eye. He whittled away at the work in front of him and at the spaces in which that work was exhibited. Trying, it seemed, to reach a purity of vision and some satisfaction of the artistic questions that dogged him. As Weschler writes near the end of the book:

"At the terminus of Irwin's trajectory, when all the nonessentials had been stripped away, came the core assertion that aesthetic perception itself was the pure subject of art. Art existed not in objects but in a way of seeing.

"And that, for a man who had spent twenty-five years honing his vocation as a practicing artist, had some fairly profound implications."

Despite Irwin's realization that his work as an artist seemed to lead him to the conclusion that there was actually no art to be made, he did indeed find a way to carry on. And though Seeing is Forgetting was published too early to capture it all, in the nearly 30 years intervening years between Weschler's first conversations with the artist and today, Irwin has continued to explore, to stretch, to hone, and to realize an amazing body of work.

Perhaps the most renowned of his more recent works is the Getty garden. And for the occasion of this first (and only?) comprehensive garden project Irwin had thus far undertaken, Weschler rejoined the artist for a series of extensive conversations charting his process and progress. Though the resulting publication is simply a transcripts of those talks — rather than the more fully realized and crafted narrative of Weschler's earlier biography — it makes for satisfying reading. If for nothing else, for perfectly delaying that moment when, suddenly reaching the last page of Seeing is Forgetting, you regret having to let it go.

Lawrence Weschler, Becky Cohen, photo., Robert Irwin Getty Garden (2002, Getty Trust Publications, $45, 9780892366200)

Lawrence Weschler, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982, University of California Press, $17.95, 9780520049208)