{{Short description|American sculptor (1939–1998)}} {{for|the Australian footballer|Eric Orr (footballer)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Eric Orr | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = December 8, 1939 | birth_place = Covington, Kentucky, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|11|13|1939|12|8}} | death_place = Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, US | known_for = [[Sculpture]], [[Installation art|Installation]], [[Performance]], and [[Painting]] | movement = [[Minimal Art]], [[Installation Art]], [[Geometric abstraction]], [[Performance]] | notable_works = Zero Mass, Sunrise, Blood Shadow, Electrum, Prime Matter | patrons = [[Peggy Guggenheim]], [[Giuseppe Panza]], [[Stanley Grinstein]] & [[Elyse Grinstein]] }}
'''Eric Orr''' (1939–1998) was an American artist who lived and worked in [[Venice, California]] from 1965 to 1998. Before moving to Los Angeles in 1965, Orr was a civil rights worker in [[Mississippi]]. A key figure of the [[Light and Space]] movement, Orr developed alongside Southern California conceptual art and created perceptual-based installations commonly associated with Light and Space art. Orr's work spanned a variety of artistic practices (including [[installation art]], [[sculpture]], [[painting]], and [[performance art]] that challenged the definition of art making. Orr's work incorporated a broad range of cultural references, including space icons found in ancient religions and cultures, Egyptian symbolism, and Buddhist spiritualism.
Orr participated in a number of international exhibitions during his life, including [[documenta]] VII (1982), the [[Sydney Biennale]] (1986), and the [[Venice Biennale]] (1986). His work can be found in many public and private collections, including the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]]; the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], New York; the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], New York; the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]]; and the [[Centre Pompidou]], Paris; Orr died in Venice, California, in 1998."<ref name="archives.getty">{{cite web|url=http://archives2.getty.edu:8082/xtf/view?docId=ead/2017.M.13/2017.M.13.xml;chunk.id=aspace_1e2cd5f4d9085d1fee9d2bb6f83533da;brand=default |title=Eric Orr documentary photographs and papers, 1959-2012, undated |website=archives2.getty.edu |access-date=2021-08-03}}</ref> His archives are available at The [[Getty Research Institute]].
==Critical analysis== In both his installations, sculpture and paintings, Eric Orr worked with elemental qualities of natural materials, e.g. stone, metal, water, and fire, gold leaf, lead, blood, human skull, and AM/FM radio parts. Orr worked with the "phenomenological exploration of perception."<ref name="articles.latimes">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-03-ca-3884-story.html|title=La Cienega Area|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=3 October 1986 |access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref> His body of work also includes monochromatic paintings, and large scale fountains (with water & fire). His work was influenced by a religio-philosophical conceptualization of space icons found in ancient religions and cultures, such as Egyptian symbolism and Buddhist Spiritualism.<ref name="EricOrr">Eric Orr: A Twenty-year Survey, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Exhibition: April 14-May 12, 1984.</ref> Orr is associated with [[Light and Space]], a group of mostly West Coast artists whose work is primarily concerned with perceptual experience stemming from the viewer's interaction with their work. "The space itself changes you, instead of an object."<ref name="Interviewwith">Interview with Eric Orr & Alberta Chu, for documentary Electrum, 1997</ref> This group also includes, among others, artists [[James Turrell]], [[Dewain Valentine]], [[Peter Alexander (artist)|Peter Alexander]], [[Robert Irwin (artist)|Robert Irwin]], and [[Ron Cooper (artist)|Ron Cooper]].
"(Orr) always pursued a phenomenological exploration of perception, pushing retinal responses to the limit through ingenious installations or through paintings that blur space via complex relationships of color and gesture...mystical shaman, the alchemical philosopher, whose preoccupations with ritual and the properties of space-time and negative space. . ."<ref name="articles.latimes" />
==1960s synopsis== In 1964, Orr exhibited his first work, ''Colt 45'', a chair set in front of an automatic pistol mounted on a stand at eye level for the seated viewer. "''Colt.45''...working against the triviality of the exhibited object, it opposed the momentous face of bodily death and was a declaration of war against the viewers' expectation.... It announced Orr's feeling that the overwhelming plethora of art objects amassed, cataloged, and disseminated in our culture had come to imprison the living artist."<ref name="McEvileyThomas">McEviley, Thomas, 'Negative Presences in Secret Spaces: The Art of Eric Orr', Artforum, Summer, 1982</ref>
His studies began at the [[University of Cincinnati]] and continued to the [[New School of Social Research]], [[University of California at Berkeley]], [[University of Mexico]], [[New School for Social Research]], École de Paraphysiques-Paris. After "terminating" his formal education in 1965, Orr moved to Venice, CA and worked as [[Mark di Suvero|Mark di Suvero's]] assistant.<ref name="EricOrr" /> "In 1968, he participated in experiments in hypnosis and passed out 10,000 bags of fresh air in downtown Los Angeles. He made dry ice sculptures with [[Judy Chicago]] and Lloyd Hamrol (artist), and also created a seminal work called ''Wall Shadow'', and ''Zero Mass'' in 1969."<ref name="huffingtonpost">{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/eric-orr-and-elizabeth-or_b_1090310.html|title=Eric Orr and Elizabeth Orr: ''Crazy Wisdom'' - John Seed|work=The Huffington Post|date=15 November 2011 |accessdate=29 October 2015}}</ref>
==1970s and 1980s synopsis== In the 1970s, Orr continued his installation and performance works. [[Giuseppe Panza]] acquired his immersive installation work ''Zero Mass''. Orr continued working with philosophy, science, and technology through works: ''Sound Tunnel'' (1969) and ''The Sound The Shape of Pear'' (1970). Orr's piece ''Sunrise'' (1976), installed at [[Cirrus Gallery]], was a continuation of his phenomenological investigations in ''Zero Mass''. ''Sunrise'' "began to knit together the scientific and Egyptian strands, introducing silence, alongside space and light, as a third material. A room nine by nine by eighteen feet was built inside a gallery...sheathed with sheets of lead- which by screening out most radiation-created, inside, a partial cosmic-ray voice.... A ceiling channel at one end of the room extended through the rooftop of the outer building to a tracking device on the roof that followed the sun from dawn to dusk and reflected it, through the channel, onto the back interior wall of the lead-sheathed room.... Above all the 'lead box,' was a laboratory for certain types of exploration. Orr reconstructed it in his studio on the Venice beachfront, where it remained for several years.... Awareness of one's body, in that black silence, became overpoweringly absorbing while, at the same time, the sense of one's material boundaries receded."<ref name="McEvileyThomas" />
He began to develop "flat rectangular objects to hang on walls. Some of them are clearly sculptures; others combine the genre characteristics of sculpture and painting...(his wall objects) involved an attempt to combine artwork with the power of object by merging inner powers of materials with their outer visual properties."<ref name="McEvileyThomas" />
From the 1970s onward, Orr created a diverse body of atmospheric monochrome paintings using airbrushing and oil paint, wall-mounted sculptures, and public artworks which incorporated a variety of elements including fire, water, gold, volcanic ash, meteorite dust, and his own blood."<ref name="archives.getty"/>
In 1981, he installed ''Silence and Ion Wind'' in the Hammer wing at the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]]. In 1982, Orr's installation ''Double Vision'' was part of [[Documenta]] 7.<ref name=documenta7>{{cite web|url=http://www.leftmatrix.com/documenta7.html|title=Documenta 7|access-date=2013-03-14|archive-date=2013-02-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223041322/http://www.leftmatrix.com/documenta7.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Silence and the Ion Wind'' "was a kind of architectural-iconic allegory of the alchemical process, as one walked from leaden wall to golden room, from darkness to light, from speech to silence."<ref name="McEvileyThomas" /> Orr continued working on his wall objects, working with monochromatic color fields, working from both horizon, and void. In 1986 Orr exhibited at the Venice Biennale<ref name=VeniceBiennale>{{cite web |url=http://asac.labiennale.org/it/documenti/mediateca/ava-ricerca.php?scheda=78128&nuova=1&Sidsupporto=78128&ret=%2Fit%2Fricerca%2Fricerca-persona.php%3Fp%3D423438%26c%3Dd |title=ASAC Dati: Ricerca avanzata mediateca |language=it |access-date=2021-06-28 |archive-date=2021-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628201535/http://asac.labiennale.org/it/documenti/mediateca/ava-ricerca.php?scheda=78128&nuova=1&Sidsupporto=78128&ret=%2Fit%2Fricerca%2Fricerca-persona.php%3Fp%3D423438%26c%3Dd |url-status=dead }}</ref> and with the Sydney Biennial.<ref name=SydneyBiennial>{{cite web|url=https://artmap.com/biennaleofsydney/exhibition/6th-biennale-of-sydney-1986-1986 |title=6th BIENNALE OF SYDNEY 1986 |website=artmap.com |access-date=2021-06-28}}</ref>
==1990s synopsis== In 1990, Orr produced an artist book ''Zero Mass'' in conjunction with a show at the Anders Tornberg Gallery, Sweden.<ref name=biblio /> This book included work of Orr's lifelong friend and collaborator [[James Lee Byars]], and writing from [[Thomas McEvilley]]. ''Zero Mass'' is a comprehensive catalog of the artists' work. "The book itself has a blued steel spine connected by linen hinges to blued steel front and rear covers. This is accompanied by a James Lee Byars multiple: ''The Sphere of Generosity''-a handmade fired ceramic sphere. These are each housed in a molded Styrofoam box, which is in turn inside a printed cardboard sleeve."<ref name="biblio">{{cite web|url=http://www.biblio.com/books/303611609.html|title=ZERO MASS: THE ART OF ERIC ORR - WITH A JAMES LEE BYARS MULTIPLE|work=Biblio.com|accessdate=29 October 2015}}</ref>
''[[Electrum (sculpture)|Electrum]]'' was another work that Orr produced in the '90s. ''Electrum'' is a large scale [[Tesla coil]] installed at [[Alan Gibbs]]' installation collection, [[Gibbs Farm]] in New Zealand.<ref name="gibbs farm">{{cite web|url=http://www.gibbsfarm.org.nz/orr.php|title=Eric Orr, Electrum (For Len Lye) - Gibbs Farm }}</ref>
==References== === Citations === {{reflist}}
=== General and cited sources === * Butterfield, Jan (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sUBCPgAACAAJ&q=%22Eric+Orr%22+artist ''The Art of Light and Space'']. Abbeville Press, Incorporated. * McEvilley, Thomas (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pUl77WY0wyUC&dq=%22Eric+Orr%22+artist&pg=PA165 ''Sculpture in the Age of Doubt'']. Skyhorse Publishing. * Martin-Gropius-Bau (2011). Andrew Perchuk, Glenn Phillips, Lucy Bradnock, Rani Singh, Rebecca Peabody, eds. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ubF1JKDMbnEC&dq=%22Eric+Orr%22+artist&pg=PA231 ''Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980'']. Getty Publications. * Marter, Joan M. (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&dq=%22Eric+Orr%22+artist&pg=RA2-PA185 ''The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art'', Volume 1]. Oxford University Press.
==External links== * [https://ericorr.org Eric Orr] (official website) * {{Instagram|ericorr_art|Eric Orr Official}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, Eric}} [[Category:1939 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American sculptors]] [[Category:20th-century American male artists]] [[Category:American male sculptors]] [[Category:People from Venice, Los Angeles]] [[Category:Sculptors from California]] [[Category:Art in Greater Los Angeles]]