Report an accessibility problem
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
1969-1974

Mendota Stoppages

more
1969

Raemar (Pink)

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

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

Presents Extensive Plans

more
1977

Begins Roden Crater project

more
1977

Roden Crater

more
1979

Acquires Roden Crater

more
1980

James Turrell: Light and Space

more
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
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

St. Elmo’s Breath

more
1996

Kjikduin (Celestial Vault)

Stroom den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands more
1996

Receives major funding

more
1996

Kjikduin (Celestial Vault)

more
1997

James Turrell: Where Does the Light in Our Dreams Come From?

more
1997

Roden Crater

Coconino County, AZ more
1998

James Turrell: Spirit and Light

more
1998

Wide Out

more
1999-2005

PHASE 1: Moving 1.3 million cubic yards of earth to shape the bowl

more
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

2006

Certificate of Recognition, City of Los Angeles

2007

James Turrell at Pomona College

more
2007

Dividing the Light

Pomona College, Claremont, CA more
2007

Dividing the Light

more
????DATE MISSING????

James Turrell Museum

Hess Art Collection at Colome, Salta, Argentina more
2012

Twilight Epiphany

Rice University, Houston, TX more
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

more
2013

Breathing Light

more
2013

Aten Reign

more
2014

Skyspace at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Kayne Griffin Corcoran conference room, Los Angeles, CA more
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

MASS MoCA, North Adams more
2017-2019

Construction of the South Space, a framing observatory for Polaris

2019

Turrell partners with ASU

more
2021

South Space completed