Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin

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Lawrence Weschler

University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2009 (expanded edition); originally published 1982, English

Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History

ISBN: 9780520256095

From the Publisher. When this book first appeared in 1982, it introduced readers to Robert Irwin, the Los Angeles artist “who one day got hooked on his own curiosity and decided to live it.” Now expanded to include six additional chapters and twenty-four pages of color plates, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees chronicles three decades of conversation between Lawrence Weschler and light and space master Irwin. It surveys many of Irwin’s site-conditioned projects—in particular the Central Gardens at the Getty Museum (the subject of an epic battle with the site’s principal architect, Richard Meier) and the design that transformed an abandoned Hudson Valley factory into Dia’s new Beacon, NY campus—enhancing what many had already considered the best book ever on an artist.

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Maya Lin

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Glenn Pushelberg

On Glenn Pushelberg’s Book List

This book is a fascinating view into the mind and approach of the great American artist Robert Irwin. It’s a good guide for any creative mind to read and digest—and can help hone one’s creative process by focusing attention on the approach itself.

We have several copies in the studio and I encourage everyone in our office to read this book.

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