Degree Date
2025
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History of Art
Abstract
“Light and Space: Los Angeles Installation Art and the Environment of the 1970s” presents an ecocritical reinterpretation of the work of four Los Angeles-based installation artists who rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. Often called Light and Space artists, Maria Nordman (b. 1943), Doug Wheeler (b. 1939), James Turrell (b. 1943), and Eric Orr (1939–1998) create immersive, abstract installations that manipulate lighting and gallery space to encourage participants to interrogate their own process of perception. While previous research has framed these artists’ work as a reflection on individual sensory experience, this dissertation focuses on the physical spaces and material realities that shape these perceptions, paying close attention to site and the specific properties of light, space, and sound. While often interpreted through the lens of psychology or phenomenology, these works instead reflect a cultural shift toward understanding one’s interconnection and interdependence with the surrounding environment.
This dissertation argues that the work of Nordman, Wheeler, Turrell and Orr is connected to the concurrent development of the environmentalist movement in the United States generally, and Southern California specifically. In the 1960s and 1970s the spatial dynamics of Los Angeles were being radically reshaped by escalating pollution, rapid urbanization, globalization, and the rise of New Age philosophy. Through formal analysis and archival research this dissertation demonstrates how Light and Space artworks both ii i reflected and shaped the evolving understanding of "environment" during the 1960s and 1970s in Los Angeles. It draws upon the work of art historians Amanda Boetzkes and James Nisbet to demonstrate how abstract Light and Space artworks model environmental thinking. This study integrates an interdisciplinary range of textual sources, including the architectural theory of Richard Neutra, the psychological theory of J.J. Gibson, the anthropology of Edmund Carpenter, and the nature writing of Edward Abbey, to connect spatial perception to broader environmental concerns. While Turrell has been studied extensively, this dissertation contributes to the scant literature on Nordman, Wheeler, and Orr. Examining these artists together reveals common ecological resonances that have gone under-recognized in prior considerations of their work.
Citation
Leifer, Emily. 2025. "Light and Space: Los Angeles Installation Art and the Environment of the 1970s." PhD Diss, Bryn Mawr College.