Daniel Habegger
Plaza Tower
1997
Oil on canvas on wooden stretcher
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2015.12.001

Representing the visible effects of light has been an enduring challenge for painters. Plaza Tower can be distinguished from many of Daniel Habegger’s other light-inspired works by the visibility of the grid that anchors the image to the canvas. This difference stems from the real-world object that gave the light its shape. Where paintings such as Clearance (also in the Barrick collection) bury their structural cross-hatching inside a diffuse glow that represents sunshine passing through the haze of a natural landscape, Plaza Tower found its brisk clarity in the glitter of light hitting the rectangular windows of the North Tower of the Plaza Tower Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas. (DKS)