Opening of James Turrell’s Skyspace, The Color Inside

The Color Inside, a Skyspace by James Turrell commissioned by Landmarks, opened to the public in October 2013. More than 1000 visitors attended opening weekend events, including a talk by the world-renowned artist to celebrate his sublime new Skyspace.

Lynn Herbert, former senior curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston led a conversation with James Turrell for an audience of 700. The event was standing room only as visitors listened to Turrell discuss his artistic vision, his career as an artist, and how the beautiful Texas skies inspired the specific light sequence in The Color Inside. See the conversation online.

On opening day, Landmarks presented three unique performances of Lightscape, a new composition by Joel Love, a Butler School of Music graduate student, assistant instructor, and award-winning composer. Landmarks commissioned Love to create a composition inspired by The Color Inside, performed by Butler School of Music students Yunji Lee, Chloe Park, Andrew Haduong, and Mic Vredenburgh. The piece, which is available to stream, draws its inspiration from the daylight hours from dawn to dusk and the evocative light sequences from The Color Inside.

In celebration of the opening, Landmarks also offered tours that visited two campus partners. At the Blanton Museum of Art, visitors saw Turrell’s First Light, Plate B1 (1989-90), a single aquatint taken from a series that explores the movement of light in a space over time. At the Harry Ransom Center, visitors viewed an exhibition curated by Chelsea Weathers which explores Turrell’s print project for Peter Blum’s publishing house, Blum Edition.

To make a free reservation to visit the Skyspace, visit turrell.utexas.edu. For more information about Turrell and The Color Inside, see the artist entry.