After starting as an expressionistic painter in the ’50s, he gradually reduced his canvases to faint lines and dots, and then moved to creating acrylic discs hung like sculpture on the wall.
Then he gave up making objects in favor of abstract architectural interventions, using translucent fabric to diffuse and direct light and transform empty rooms into navigable optical illusions.
Eventually, Mr. Irwin progressed out of art altogether, moving to projects like the acclaimed Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, which he designed with more than 500 varieties of plants and rocks that he found in the wild and meticulously logged.
“The people in the garden world are not like the art world,” he said. “The art world wants to bust your ass, but these people are effusive in their thank yous.”