Chapters 8 through 10 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 8: The Discs (1967-69)

Irwin is badgered by the seeming arbitrariness of the energy created in the dots painting in their confinement to the canvas. Irwin's discomfort with paintings that encompass the edges of the canvas leads him to move on to painting discs. The question before Irwin is, "How do I paint a painting that does not begin and end at an edge but rather starts to take in and become involved with the space or environment around it?" (p. 99). His focus now becomes the lighting and the walls of the room. Instead of fighting these elements as he did in the past, he decides to make them part of his art—art that would dissolve into its environment. The physical dimensions of the room and its natural ambient lighting become very important to his work. Three...