ART CITIES:N.York-Helen Pashgian

Born in 1934, Helen Pashgian is a pioneer and pre-eminent member of the California Light and Space Movement. Her signature forms include columns, discs and spheres in delicate and rich coloration, often with an isolated element suspended, embedded or encased within. Pashgian’s innovative application of industrial epoxies, plastics and resins effect semi-translucent surfaces that simultaneously filter and contain illumination. Activated by light, these sculptures resonate in form and spatiality, both inner and outer.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Lehmann Maupin Gallery Archive

In Focus presentations are a recent addition to the Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s program that allow the gallery to highlight a crucial aspect of an artist’s practice. The special installation “In Focus: Helen Pashgian” at Lehmann Maupin focus on Helen Pashgian’s “Untitled” (2009) column works. Installed in the gallery’s black box space for optimal viewing, as these works were intended to be experienced, the columns create an immersive environment that represents the most recent evolution of Pashgian’s practice. As the viewer moves around them, the perception of these works shifts; they seem at times to be solid forms and at others to be dissolving into space. Since surface finish is crucial to these qualities, Pashgian has a very low tolerance for any sign of damage of her artwork. Her view that, “if there is a scratch on the surface, that’s all you see” has important implications for the conservation of her works. Helen Pashgian was born in Pasadena, California, and completed her undergraduate work at Pomona College before heading to Boston University for her master’s degree. She returned to the Los Angeles area in the 1960s and joined a number of artists in exploring the artistic possibilities of industrial materials, such as plastics and resins. Pashgian focused on cast resin, creating intimately scaled, translucent objects that incorporate vibrant colors and precisely finished surfaces. The perception of these works shifts as the viewer moves around them, and they seem at times to be solid forms and at others to be dissolving into space. Pashgian is rare among artists for many reasons, one of which is her willingness to talk about nostalgia without irony, distance or dismissiveness. She has spoken about a particular nostalgia in her life, one that she relates to early childhood memories of playing in the tidepools along the California coast and watching the way light moved through the water and animated the creatures below the surface.  Lehmann Maupin will show additional cast epoxy spheres and a mounted wall work by Pashgian at Frieze New York. The artist’s “Untitled” (dates vary) spheres represent an origin point in the artist’s practice, as they are among the earliest forms the artist experimented with. These works appear to simultaneously trap and emanate light, offering an ocular illusion that defies common perception. Several of the works exhibited in the In Focus presentation and at Frieze New York were included in the landmark exhibition Space Shifters, organized by Ralph Rugoff at the Hayward Gallery in London (2018-19). Together, the three bodies of work on view provide a comprehensive overview of this pioneering female figure of West Coast minimalism, whose influence is gaining increasing international understanding. Helen Pashgian was born in Pasadena, California, and completed her undergraduate work at Pomona College before heading to Boston University for her master’s degree. She returned to the Los Angeles area in the 1960s and joined a number of artists in exploring the artistic possibilities of industrial materials, such as plastics and resins. Pashgian focused on cast resin, creating intimately scaled, translucent objects that incorporate vibrant colors and precisely finished surfaces. The perception of these works shifts as the viewer moves around them, and they seem at times to be solid forms and at others to be dissolving into space.

Info: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 501 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 25/4-25/5/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.lehmannmaupin.com