Synthetic Desert

Radical reduction of optical and acoustical sensations define the first-ever realized installations by Dough Wheeler at the Guggenheim, conceived during the late 1960 and ’70s.

Doug Wheeler in the Painted Desert, Arizona, ca. 1970. Courtesy the artist

Being created more than 40 years after the work’s conception, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents the first-ever realized work from a group of installations conceived by Doug Wheeler during the late ’60s and ’70s. “Doug Wheeler: PSAD Synthetic Desert III” showcases a semi-anaechoic chamber: a hermetic environment based on a radical reduction of optical and acoustical sensation.

**Top:** Doug Wheeler in the Painted Desert, Arizona, ca. 1970. Courtesy the artist. **Above:** “Doug Wheeler: PSAD Synthetic Desert III”, installation view, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2017. Photo David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

PSAD Synthetic Desert III entered the Guggenheim collection in 1992 along with many other Minimal, Post-Minimal, and Conceptual artworks from the 1960s and ’70s that were acquired from the collector Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. The realization of Synthetic Desert by Dough Wheeler is intended to produce an authorized iteration of the work that can be re-created at the museum in the future.

Doug Wheeler, PSAD Synthetic Desert III, ink on paper, 1971. Panza Collection, Gift, 1991, © Doug Wheeler — Doug Wheeler, *PSAD Synthetic Desert III*, ink on paper, 1971. Panza Collection, Gift, 1991, © Doug Wheeler

Wheeler is most closely associated with the Light and Space movement of West Coast art. Since he abandoned painting in the mid-1960s, much of his work has been based on the optical dematerialization of the space of a gallery or museum room. Through a subtle application of the technology of light and sound, he produces immersive spatial environments that heighten our understanding of perceptual experience.

“Doug Wheeler: PSAD Synthetic Desert III”, installation view with Dough Wheeler, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2017. Photo David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

from 24 March to 2 August 2017
Doug Wheeler: PSAD Synthetic Desert III
curated by Jeffrey Weiss and Francesca Esmay, with Melanie Taylor
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York

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Synthetic Desert

Radical reduction of optical and acoustical sensations define the first-ever realized installations by Dough Wheeler at the Guggenheim, conceived during the late 1960 and ’70s.

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