Rago Auctions

One of only two women associated with the Light and Space movement, Helen Pashgian is revered for her innovation explorations of light and perception through resin sculpture. Born in Pasadena, Pashgian received her Bachelor’s degree from nearby Pomona College in 1956, followed by a stint at Columbia University before she received her Master’s from Boston University in 1958.

An art historian who studied the “painter of light” Johannes Vermeer, Pashgian has produced an oeuvre of ethereal objects that she considers “presences” and which appear to contain light. These works were produced in series of geometric forms including columns, discs, and spheres which must be observed from various angles to be most fully appreciated.

Pashgian worked alongside many of the renowned male artists of the period, including James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and others, but was not granted recognition until later in her career. “She’s someone who’s been really overlooked from that period because women were overlooked in the art world then,” James Turrell told the New York Times in 2014. “I worked with light and sort of materialized it. Bob Irwin worked with material and de-materialized it into light aspects. Helen was the one who as a sculptor spiritualized the material world. You can sort of materialize the spiritual, but she was coming from the other direction, and I thought that was really interesting and beautiful in her work.”

Pashgian’s first solo exhibition, Helen Pashgian: Working in Light, was at the Pomona College Museum of Art in 2010. Shortly after, she was featured in two group exhibitions as part of the 2011-12 Pacific Standard Time program, followd by her first solo exhibition at a major museum: Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Norton Simon Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the Palm Springs Art Museum, among others.