Untitled
1967
Inconel coated glass with chrome coated brass banding
6 x 6 x 6 in. (15.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm.)
Larry Bell’s Untitled is a superb realization of the artist’s most celebrated and historically significant body of work: the coated-glass cube. Executed in 1967, at the height of the Light and Space movement in Southern California, the work originates from glass panels coated by Bell during that formative period using his pioneering vapor-deposition process, bringing to completion an idea whose origins lie in one of the most innovative moments of postwar American art. The result transforms Untitled into a simple geometric form into a constantly shifting perceptual experience, appearing alternately transparent and opaque, material and immaterial, as light, reflection, and the viewer’s movement activate its luminous planes. Few artists have so elegantly dissolved the boundary between object and atmosphere. Bell’s cubes are recognized among the defining sculptural achievements of their era and reside in the collections of the world’s foremost museums. Untitled stands as a quintessential example of this iconic series, uniting historical significance, technical innovation, and enduring visual refinement. Bell’s 1967 cube works are held in major museum collections including MoMA, the Whitney, Seattle Art Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, Tate, and Musée de Grenoble, with the Menil Collection holding a related 1966–1967 example.