Untitled 1964

This cube, by Larry Bell, might almost be a painting but it is more like a sculpture, a glass box with shifting coloured shapes, kind of like the modernist paintings of Fernand Léger but in three dimensions. Imagine Bell in his studio layering these different colours, maybe he was thinking about stained glass windows? The surface of the glass has a gorgeous, almost oily iridescence, and then the hard gold edge contains it all. The light changes as you move around the work so you can get a completely different sensation depending on where you stand. I love the feeling of permeability in Bell’s work, the way the colours seem to float, and the space is always being redefined by light and reflection. It's so simple, and yet so complex. It reminds me of some of the work of Robert Irwin, or even James Turrell. It shows how artists keep talking to one another, across time and place.