Cube #31 (Amber) 2005

Larry Bell made this amber cube as an exercise in pure form, probably out in California, where the light just bounces like nowhere else. It's a sculpture, not a painting, but it reminds me of colour field painting, especially that way the light seems to fill and then emanate from within the cube. When you see a form like this, you wonder what the artist was thinking—was he aspiring to perfection? Was it an exploration of materials? I bet that Bell was interested in surface, smoothness, reflection. I can imagine him playing with light and space, trying to capture something ephemeral, something in between. It's like the work of Robert Irwin or even James Turrell, but in a solid, geometric form. Ultimately, it feels like an experiment, like all good art.