Doug Wheeler

Globe, Arizona 1939

Photo credit David Heald 2017 © SRGF, NY / Courtesy Doug Wheeler Studio

Synthetic Desert... the sense of endless space. The desert is the space where the illusion can be fully experienced. Wheeler recreates this wonderful world.

Doug Wheeler, Suspended Volume in Reflecting Spectrum, c. 1975. Installation with skylight, scrim volume, blackout paper and natural light. "The effective usable space is the 30" x 12'6" [76,2 x 381 cm] walk-around square room perimeter. The suspended volume would be white as the walls and floor - and its sides opaque. The incident light reflection off of the top and bottom of the volume would filter around its edges shrouding its presence and creating a torque of ambient spectral circumnavigation." Room Dimensions: 144 x 150 x 150 inches (375,8 x 381 x 381 cm) Architectural plan drawing for environmental installation. Ink, graphite and colored pencil on vellum, 24 x 36 in. (61,1 x 91,4 cm) © 1975 Doug Wheeler. Panza Collection, Mendrisio. Photo Alessandro Zambianchi, Milano

Doug Wheeler, CC OSZ 75 COUNTER ROTATION SPACE, 1975. Circular installation with coved plaster walls, clay floor and natural light. "Counter orientation space - bi-axis entrance - white low incident ambience. 9" coving gradating from entrance slits creating zonal cavity of minimal geometric relationships -floor - ceiling - walls same featureless surface. Sheared 360° hemisphere into positive and negative orienting 180° hemisphere. Entrances 24". Domed clay floor with 12" elevation at center. Displaced arc 24"."  Room Dimensions: 144 x 430 inch diameter (365,7 x 1219 cm diameter) Architectural plan drawing for environmental installation. Ink, graphite and colored pencil on vellum, 24 x 36 in. (61,1 x 91,4 cm) © 1975 Doug Wheeler.  Panza Collection, Mendrisio. Photo Alessandro Zambianchi, Milano.

Doug Wheeler, SA MI DW SM 2 75, 1975. Plywood, covered plaster walls, white latex paint, quartz halogen lights, black ultraviolet fluorescent lights, mechanical dimming system, six-minutes cycle. "The space is filled with quartz halogen and UV light that operates on a six minute cycle. Ceiling height approximately twice that of man, depht and width equal, and at least 5 times man's reach." Two-room space: 144 x 240 x 120 inches (365,7 x 609,6 x 305 cm) and 192 x 360 x 360 inches (487,6 x 914,4 x 914,4 cm) © 1975 Doug Wheeler. Installation view: February 26 - March 20, 1975 Galleria Salvatore Ala, Milano. Photo © Giorgio Colombo, Milano.

Doug Wheeler, PSAD Synthetic Desert III, 1971 (realized 2017). Reinforced fiberglass, anechoic absorbers, white ultraviolet neon, sound equipment 228 x 678 x 318 inches (579,1 x 1722,1 x 807,7 cm). © 2017 Doug Wheeler. Installation view: March 24 - August 2, 2017 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza Collection, Gift, 1991 91.4088. Photo David Heald © SRGF, NY

Rosa Giovanna Magnifico Panza di Biumo and PanzaCollection would like to thank the artist, the family and the institutions for granting image publishing.