'Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch' at the Hill Foundation, New York

7 September 2022

From 16 Septmeber, The Hill Art Foundation presents 'Lux and Lumen: Spencer Finch', which places new and recent works by 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, Spencer 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.

Find further information via the Hill Art Foundation.

Installation view of Spencer FInch, Painting Air (2022) at the Hill Art Foundation. Photography by Matthew Herrmann.