Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch
Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch
September 16, 2022
The Hill Art Foundation is pleased to announce Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch. The exhibition places new and recent works by Spencer Finch in dialogue with a 16th-century stained glass window by the Renaissance master Valentin Bousch. Bousch’s The Creation and the Expulsion from Paradise (1533) was acquired by Tom and Janine Hill in 2018 for the Hill Art Foundation and has undergone extensive conservation under the leadership of Drew Anderson and Timothy Husband. In conceiving this exhibition, Finch worked closely with the conservation team to understand the connections between the stained glass window and his own practice. The title comes from the ideas of Abbot Suger (circa 1081–1151), abbot of the cathedral at Saint-Denis and an early patron of Gothic architecture in Europe. Suger believed in the power of stained glass to transform natural light, lux, into sacred light, or lumen. Finch expands on these ideas in relation to the Bousch stained glass and modern secular sites. One such example is the monumental Painting Air, an immersive installation that transforms the Foundation’s double-story gallery into a lightscape inspired by Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny.
Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch opens one week after the artist’s solo exhibition at James Cohan Gallery, We send the wave to find the wave. Taken together, the two exhibitions represent a celebration of Finch’s exploration of light, atmosphere, and time.
The Creation and Expulsion window by Valentin Bousch is a masterpiece that will be installed semi-permanently in the Hill Art Foundation space. The below video, filmed and edited by Matthew Herrmann, documents the complex installation of the work. Timothy Husband produced extensive scholarship surrounding the window and its conservation, excerpts of which can be read here as well. These texts will be published in our upcoming catalogue, Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch and Valentin Bousch at Hill Art Foundation. For a panel-by-panel breakdown of the Creation and Expulsion window, scroll down or view the full virtual exhibition here.
