Timeline
1959
Receives pilot’s license after flying with father. By 2008 estimated 6.5 years total in flight.
1960
Named city’s “Boy of the Year”
1960
Attends John Cage performance (more)
1961
Pasadena High School senior class student body president
1965
Graduates from Pomona College with a BA in Psychology
1965
Art Graduate Studies, University of California, Irvine
1966
Afrum (White) (more)
1967
James Turrell: Light Projections (more)
1968
National Endowment for the Arts
1968
James Turrell: Light Projections and Light Spaces (more)
1968
Partners with Robert Irwin and Ed Wortz on Art and Technology at LACMA (more)
1968
Juke Green (more)
1968
Gard Blue (more)
1969
After graduate work at UCI, experiments with Mendota Stoppages and studio solo exhibitions (more)
1969
Wedgework III (more)
De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands
1969-1974
Mendota Stoppages (more)
1970
Afrum II (Green) (more)
1973
MA Art, Claremont Graduate School
1974
Guggenheim Fellowship
1974
Evicted from Santa Monica studio, spends nearly 500 hours of flight time over 7 months, before finally finding Roden Crater (more)
1974
Skyspace I (more)
Villa Panza, Varesa, Italy
1974
Turrell concludes his Mendota Stoppages series (more)
1974
Receives Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts (more)
1974-1976
Discovers Roden Crater (more)
1974
Raethro II, Magenta (Corner Shallow Space) (more)
1974
Wedgework III (more)
1974
Virga (more)
1976
First presentation of “Project at the Volcano” (more)
1976
Acton (more)
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana
1976
Presents Extensive Plans (more)
1977
Begins Roden Crater project (more)
1977
Roden Crater (more)
1980
James Turrell: Light and Space (more)
1980-86/2016
Meeting (more)
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York
early 1980s
Dia unable to continue patronage due to lack of financial resources, JT pursues projects through own Skystone Foundation until 1996 (more)
interim
Refer to Timeline of Works Mentioned (more)
1980-86/2016
Meeting (more)
1981-1983
Initial shaping of Roden Crater’s bowl using bulldozers
1983
James Turrell, Mattress Factory Museum (more)
1983
Pleiades (more)
Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1984
Katherine T. and John D. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
1986
James Turrell: The Roden Crater Project (more)
1987
Links Mendota Stoppages to Roden Crater with Mapping Spaces portfolio (more)
1987
Mapping Spaces (more)
1988
James Turrell: Roden Crater (more)
1990
James Turrell, P.S. 1 (more)
1991
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France
1992
James Turrell: Works 1967–1992 (more)
1992
Space that Sees (more)
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1992
St. Elmo’s Breath (more)
1996
Kjikduin (Celestial Vault)
Stroom den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
1996
Receives major funding (more)
1996
Kjikduin (Celestial Vault) (more)
1997
Hi Test
Mondrian Los Angeles (Hotel), West Hollywood, CA
1997
Roden Crater (more)
Coconino County, AZ
1998
James Turrell: Spirit and Light (more)
1998
Wide Out (more)
1999
The Light Inside (more)
Tunnel connecting old/ new buildings of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
1999-2005
PHASE 1: Moving 1.3 million cubic yards of earth to shape the bowl (more)
2000
Kielder Skyspace (more)
Kielder Water & Forest Park, Northumberland, United Kingdom
2000
Open Field (more)
Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima, Japan
2000
One Accord (more)
Live Oak Friends Meeting House, Houston, TX
2001
Knight Rise (more)
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ
2001
One Accord (more)
2001
Knight Rise (more)
2002
James Turrell, National Gallery of Art (more)
2004
Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Science
2005
Sky Pesher (more)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2006
Certificate of Recognition, City of Los Angeles
2007
James Turrell at Pomona College (more)
2007
Dividing the Light (more)
Pomona College, Claremont, CA
2007
Dividing the Light (more)
2008
Mohl Ip (more)
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
????DATE MISSING????
James Turrell Museum (more)
Hess Art Collection at Colome, Salta, Argentina
2012
Twilight Epiphany (more)
Rice University, Houston, TX
2012
Air Apparent (more)
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2012
SIX HOLOGRAMS (more)
2012
Twilight Epiphany (more)
2013
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
2013
National Medal of Arts
2013
James Turrell: A Retrospective (more)
2013
Akhob
Louis Vuitton CityCenter, Las Vegas, NV (more)
2013
Akhob (more)
2013
Breathing Light (more)
2013
Aten Reign (more)
2014
Skyspace at Kayne Griffin Corcoran (more)
Kayne Griffin Corcoran conference room, Los Angeles, CA
2014
The Color Inside (more)
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2015
American Academy in Rome
2015
Honorary Doctorate, Pratt
2015
LACMA Film + Art Gala Honoree
2017
James Turrell, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (more)
2017
INTO THE LIGHT (more)
MASS MoCA, North Adams
2017-2019
Construction of the South Space, a framing observatory for Polaris
2019
Turrell partners with ASU (more)
2021
South Space completed