Robert Irwin, White Cube

86-year-old Robert Irwin is a force to be reckoned with in American art. Renowned for his radical rainbow of colourful tubes that fluctuate from warm to cool shades, Irwin has had major exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and is best known for the Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. So focus and refocus your eyes and get to grips with Irwin's sensory adventure at White Cube Bermondsey this autumn.
Robert Irwin art & technique
For Irwin, colour is all about playing tricks on the mind. He started his career creating canvases filled with abstract dots and lines before attaching acrylic discs on the walls and then layering theatrical-lighting gels over tubes. Now, Irwin has fully abandoned the easel in favour of sculpture and installations that change the atmosphere of a space. The pioneer of the Californian 'Light and Space' movement in the 1960s, he's gone on to delight audiences with his optical experiments that delve into the limits of perception. Beginners with Irwin's work might want to think about Minimalism and Barnett Newman's vivid colour field paintings as defining features of his art. 
Robert Irwin 2015 exhibition
You'll find three groups of sculptures entwined with fluorescent works and acrylic columns at the White Cube exhibition. In the 'cuts' series, dancing tubes of light are placed on the wall in horizontal lines, with variable patterns and tones creating a curious sensory experience. Each coloured tube measures 7 by 8 feet and could be seen as a brushstroke in a dynamic painting. 
The rich concentrated colours in the 'Fourfold' works of four fluorescent tubes in vertical lines is simple and effective. Examine closely and you'll find in the middle of the sculptures is a zone of muted grey, where tones subtly shift and change. You'll also want to check out the two acrylic columns that run floor to ceiling in the 9 x 9 x 9 gallery, dominating the architectural space.
There's something magical about Irwin's constructions because it is so unclear how these pieces of acrylics were joined in the first place. Toying with the line between seen and seen, this is one of the most interesting exhibitions in London this autumn.