Robert Irwin, a Southern California artist associated with the Light and Space movement of the 1960s, who early on stopped making paintings in favor of creating ephemeral and sometimes intangible art environments, died on Wednesday in the La Jolla section of San Diego. His death, at Scripps Memorial Hospital, was caused by heart failure, said Arne Glimcher, the founder and chairman of the international Pace Gallery, which has shown Mr. Irwin’s work since 1966. Mr. Irwin lived in San Diego. Within the contemporary art world, Mr. Irwin’s work on human attention and perception — he called it, with a nod to scientific research, an “inquiry” into perception — was highly influential; he won a MacArthur “genius” award in 1984. The work was not highly visible to the public, however.

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Persons: Robert Irwin, Arne Glimcher, Irwin’s, Irwin, — Organizations: Scripps Memorial Hospital, Pace Gallery, MacArthur Locations: Southern California, Jolla, San Diego, Venice