In Reflections 1 William (Bill) Culbert explores the aesthetic concepts of light, shape, space and energy. He is asking the viewer to take a fresh look at the common light bulb and think about the phenomenon of reflection.

Since the early 1970s Culbert has made works exploring the qualities of light by ‘capturing’ it within light bulbs, wine glasses, lampshades, window frames, fluorescent tubes and plastic bottles. This use of such common consumer objects relates to the idea of the ‘ready-made’, pioneered by artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881 -1973) and Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).

Culbert was born in Dunedin and studied at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts from 1953 to 1956. He left New Zealand in 1957 on a National Art Gallery scholarship to study painting at the Royal College of Art, London. Culbert is one of New Zealand’s most internationally recognised artists. He has exhibited widely in international venues, including the Millennium Dome, London. He currently lives in London and France but retains strong exhibition links with New Zealand.

Purchased, 1988
Reproduced courtesy of Bill Culbert
Mixed media
88/01
1971

Collection tags

lamps (lighting devices), mirrors, reflections