Both James Turrell and Jeff Koons use the past to influence their modern art. Turrell combines natural sunlight with advanced technology as a way of bringing the “cosmos closer to the space that we occupy.” He focuses on light, both physically and spiritually. Koons, while also relying on the past to determine his art, embraces digital technology and takes the concept of an artist’s workshop to the next level, as a way of producing a significant amount of fantastical works.
Turrell is particularly interested in spirituality and one’s inner light. Instead of creating religious triptychs like Giotto to relay spirituality to the public, Turrell modifies natural light. His beliefs and messages are just as serious as Giotto’s were but he uses a different, more interactive form. Turrell has had exhibitions all over the world, ranging from Seoul to California but the entire time he has always been working on the Roden Crater. The Roden Crater is like the culmination of Turrell’s study of both physical and spiritual light. The Crater is located in the Painted Desert region of Northern Arizona, remote enough so the skyline is always clear and the buzzing of a city is beyond earshot. He constructed a space within the crater to allow the natural light from the sun to come flooding in, changing in intensity as the daylight progresses. He worked to find and then create a space where sublime quiet actually exists. It is a place, in 2016, where one can actually slow down.
Turrell wants people to greet the light, to actually enter the space as opposed to standing three feet away from something hung up on a wall in a gallery. It is ethereal and divine in the same way Giotto meant his "Lamentation Scene" to be or Cimabue meant his "Madonna Enthroned" to be but Turrell deals with the sublime in a very different way. Instead of looking at a piece of art on a wall or in a church, Turrell makes the physical experience the work of art. His art exists to help people find inner peace and in order to find that peace you must fully immerse yourself in the space, he has created for you. Whether that’s walking through a maze of bright lights and colors in a museum or one day venturing to the Roden Crater “to feel one with the universe”, you must put yourself in the space to feel the full effect.
Jeff Koons creates his art with an emphasis on fantasy as opposed to spirituality. His work uses bright colors like Turrell, but instead of manipulating the natural light he spends days in a giant workshop generating colors on his computer. His process is incredibly elaborate and involves a team of hundreds of individuals. He could have three different people painting on the same canvas at once while five other people are working on mixing paints, and ten other people are working on computers generating new images. Koons has turned the intimate and individualized process of art making into a highly efficient business model. He creates and manipulates objects, but he sees objects as metaphors for people. His art is about accepting others through understanding the objects he creates.
In the Art 21 video, Koons discusses his exhibit at Versailles. He abandoned all doubt and inhibitions in an attempt to re-construct art history. He placed his bright, neon sculptures like "Balloon Dog (Magenta)" in the middle of the Hercules Salon in Versailles, creating a stark contrast between the aged marble and the mirror-polished stainless steel. Most notably, however, was his decision to place a bust of himself atop a Bernini plinth, basically proclaiming himself as King. Koons referred back to the neoclassical style while constructing his bust, featuring a bare chest and an incredibly elaborate base. By placing himself atop a Bernini plinth and comparing himself to kings like Louis XIV, Koons is proclaiming that not only is he as prolific as Bernini but also knows how to control the art world like Louis XIV ruled France. Koons is referring back to the way kings and art masters were appreciated and establishing himself as the next great ruler. In his interview, Koons discusses the importance of commitment and the desire to create and more importantly re-create. His decision to merge the past and the present within the historically significant halls of Versailles proves that art history is constantly being amended and altered. Koons has not only redefined the way art is produced but he’s also returned to the way art used to be displayed, in grand halls dedicated to kings and on elaborate plinths constructed by Bernini.
Both Turrell and Koons refer to the past for inspiration while creating their very modern works of art. Turrell embraces his spirituality, which has been a common theme throughout all of art history while Koons works with fantastical objects as a way of re-creating history.
