Developing an Abstract Expressionist approach to painting by the late s, Irwin had his first monographic exhibition at Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, in , then moving to the newly founded Ferus Gallery, where he began exhibiting in By the early sixties, Irwin shifted to creating more restrained works with his line paintings, guided principally by questions of structure, color, and perception, and his dot paintings, works on gently bowed supports composed with small dots of near-complementary colors.
In , Irwin initiated a series of curved aluminum and acrylic discs that he painted and displayed with an arm extending out from the wall, creating a viewing experience that is impossible for a work on canvas. By , Irwin abandoned his studio, embarking on an extended inquiry of artmaking beyond the frame and the traditional art object.
For its th anniversary, Indianapolis Museum of Art commissioned Light and Space III for its Pulliam Great Hall, a multifloored interior space in which the artist arranged fluorescent lights to create an irregular grid, flanked by semi-transparent fabric scrims.
Irwin also created permanent site-conditioned landscape works, a facet of his practice initiated by his design of the Central Gardens at the J.
Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles Irwin employed a wide range of media, from fluorescent lights to fabric scrims, colored and tinted gels, paint, wire, acrylic, and glass. Robert Irwin, Untitled , , acrylic lacquer on formed acrylic plastic, 54" Robert Irwin, Light and Space II 2 , , fluorescent lamps and painted wall, installation dimensions variable, 24" 61 cm , 61 fluorescent lamps 48" Robert Irwin One-Artist Exhibitions.
