LIGHT ART
AMNON BARZEL
Texts by Amnon Barzel, Paolo Targetti and Consuelo de Gara
This is a volume on Light Art, the current in contemporary art that uses artificial light as its primary expressive instrument.
In the first section an extensive introductory essay by Amnon Barzel underlines how practically interrupted study into the chromatic values of light have been part of the history of art from its very beginnings right through to the most recent developments, recalling the experiences of Caravaggio and de La Tour regarding internal light and the expressionists for external light, thus underlining how the invention of artificial light has enriched the light-art relationship opening a fascinating new chapter, inaugurated by the experiments carried out from the fifties by artists such as Fontana, Flavin, Merz and others.
A text by Paolo Targetti follows dealing with the fundamental role played by the relationship between art and industry in contemporary art. Consuelo de Gara conducts an extended interview of James Turrell, the US artist unanimously considered the greatest master of Light Art.
The second section is devoted to the Targetti Light Art Collection, one of the most prestigious collections in the world dealing with artificial light. The images and description of each of the works which make up the collection are accompanied by a retrospective critical text on the artists who created them.
Among the artists presented are some of considerable fame including Olafur Eliasson, Gilberto Zorio, Anne and Patrick Poirier, Fabrizio Plessi and Hidetoshi Nagasawa as well as young up-and-coming talents, winners of the first four editions of the International Targetti Light Art Prize.
The volume is available at the bookstore in via Torino 61, Milan and from Feb 22 2006 in all Italian bookshops.
