Cassandra J. LopezExtra Credit: Attend Guest Speaker, Robert Irwin’s Lecture

September 24, 2013 at Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center

As an opportunity to earn extra points for this fall 2013 semester, students were invited to attend a lecture by Robert Irwin. Irwin is an artist that lives in San Diego and is known for his installation Art. The location of the lecture was in a large hall. Chairs placed in several rows seated many, however, much of the audience were left standing in anticipation of his lecture. The audience consisted of students, professors and many others. The following is an interpretation of Robert Irwin’s lecture and a capture of his artwork.

Irwin presented his artwork and began to speak of his experiences in a most captivating way. He drew the audience to what he spoke about with what he called “his own question’s answer,” Art is politics. As an example of his work he tells the audience a personal anecdote of his teaching. While teaching a semicircle of people he took on the task to draw a simple item as literal as possible. After the item was drawn, the task of picking the item up was required to later draw what the task taker knows of the item. This anecdote illustrated another level of an object with more than one dimension and reality. This is Irwin’s self discovery of he was, “too obvious.”

It is no surprise, after analyzing his self he pushed forward and began to travel. During this experience he searched and found a straight line as key to his perception. There is more power with less stuff in painting and a lot less distraction. After reducing his own experience and art work to four lines, then viewing the lines as having their own reality he reanalyzed the line to the point where he understood an existence of a line. His lecture aimed at capturing the idea that the world is seen by all senses and he enjoys his art to be of pure energy.

The visual element of Robert Irwin’s lecture was the power point of slides shown on a projection screen. Recognizable art works of his are those seen in La Jolla where he has cut windows into glass. Also, notable are the local hedges he has developed at San Diego’s Federal Courthouse. Another noteworthy artwork he has: gardens and landscapes. In addition, a great piece he has outside with several trees in cubicle like sections. Robert Irwin is an extraordinary artist and a wonderful guest speaker to have heard.