-~

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

CAST RESIN SCULPTURE \I FIVE LOS ANGELES ARTISTS: 1965-1972

A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in Art by Gaye Ann Mueller

June 1979 The Thesis of Gaye Ann Mueller is approved:

California State University, Northridge

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank the members of my committee, Kenan Breazeale, Robert Bassler, and especially Louise Lewis for the generous devotion of their time, energy and knowledge towards the production of this thesis. I would also like to thank David Elder for his direction at the start when all roads seemed blocked.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...... •·. . ; i; LIST OF PLATES AND SOURCES . v

LIST OF FIGURES AND SOURCES. xi

ABSTRACT xii Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 2. THE LOS ANGELES ART SCENE IN THE SIXTIES. 6 3. DEWAIN VALENTINE .. 19 4. PETER ALEXANDER . 37

5. FREDERICK EVERSLEY. . 53 6. HELEN PASHGIAN. 69

7. ROBERT.BASSLER •. 83 8. CONCLUSION. 102 BIBLIOGRAPHY 124 APPENDIXES . . 130 APPENDIX A: PROCEDURES FOR CASTING POLYESTER RESIN SCULPTURE ...... 131 APPENDIX B: THE CHEMISTRY OF POLYESTER RESIN. 142

iv PLATES AND SOURCES

Plate Page 1. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Three Discs, yellow fiberglass and resin, 1967.

Source: DeWain Valentine...... 27 2. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Large Wedge, yellow and pink cast resin, 1968.

Source: Von Meier Kurt. 11 An Interview with DeWain Valentine, .. Artforum, Vol. 7, No.9, May 1969, Illustrated p .. 58 ...... 28 3. View of the DeWain Valentine exhibition at the Bischofbergen Gallery in Zurich, 1969.

Source: Danieli, Fidel. 11 DeWain Valentine, .. Art International, Vol. 13, No. 9, November 1969, Illustrated p. 36 ...... •... 29 4. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Curved Slqp), blue cast 11 11 11 resin, 84 x 84 x 2 , 1970.

Source: Baker, Elizabeth. 11 Los Angeles 1971, 11 Art News, Vol. 70, September 1971, Illustrated p. 37 30 5. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Disc), red transparent cast resin, 1970. Source: DeWain Valentine. 30 6. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Concave Circle, cast resin, 11 11 72 X 25 , 1970. Source: DeWain Valentine ...... 31 7. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Circle, Clear Smoke, cast resin, 11 11 34-3/16 X 2-1/4 , 1971. Source: DeWain Valentine. 32 8. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Ring Sculpture), acrylic, 48 11 diameter, 1972. Source: DeWain Valentine. 33

v Plate Page 9. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Catenary Light, acrylic rod, 11 80 I X 1 ' 1970-72. Source: DeWain Valentine, exhibition catalogue, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, June 28- August 3, 1975, Cat. no. 34 ...... 34 10. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Diamond Column, cast resin, 6 1 high, 1978.

Source: Photographed by author at 11 Sculpture 1 78 11 Civic Center Mall, Los Angeles, October 14-31, 1978. 35 11. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Cantilevered Planes, plexiglass 11 11 11 sheets, 624 x 144 x 228 , 1975. Source: DeWain Valentine, exhibition catalogue, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, June 28- August 3, 1975, Cat. no. 2 ...... 36 12. PETER ALEXANDER, Cloud Box, layered cast resin, 11 10 , 1966.

Source: Peter A1 exander ...... 45 13. Installation view of two large wedges and pyramid, cast resin, 1967-1968.

Source: Peter Alexander 46 14. PETER ALEXANDER, Untitled (Wedge), cast resin, 11 11 11 96 X 8 X 8 , 1969.

Source: Peter Alexander ..... 47 15. PETER ALEXANDER, Leaning Bar, cast resin, 11 11 11 105 X 3 X 3 , 1970.

Source: Peter Alexander 48 16. View of wall pieces in studio, 2119 Estrella, Los Angeles, cast resin, 1970.

Source: Peter Alexander ... 49 17. PETER ALEXANDER, Six Part Wall Piece, cast resin, 11 11 11 89 X 68 X 12 , 1970.

Source: Peter A1 exander ...... " ...... 50 Plate Page 1a. PETER ALEXANDER, Untitled (Sunset), detail, pastel 11 11 on paper, 30 x 40 , 1974. Source: Peter Alexander, Sunsets, exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine Art Gallery, November 3-December a, 1974 ... 51 19. PETER ALEXANDER, acrylic painting, 197a. Source: Photographed by author in artist's studio, Tuna Canyon . . • . . . . . • ...... 52 20. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three-color, three layer CUt cast resin cylinder, au X 12 11 X au, 1969. Source: Frederick Eversley, exhibition catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 30-May 30, 1976, Cat . no . 27 ...... • ...... 61 21. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three color, three layer 11 11 cut cast resin cylinder, au x 5 x 20 , 1969. Source: Frederick Eversley, exhibition catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 30-May 30, 1976, Cat. no. 24 • . • . . • • . . . . . • . . . . . • . 62 22. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three color, three layer cast resin disc with hole, 20 11 x 311 ,1973. Source: Photographed by author in artist•s studio, Venice, California ...... 63 23. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, opaque black cast resin 11 11 disc with hole, 20 x 4 , 1974. Source: Frederick Eversley,exhibition catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 30-May 30, 1976, Cat. no . 9 ...... 64 24. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, transparent black cast 11 11 resin disc, 20 x 6 , 1976. Source: Photographed by author in artist's studio, Venice, California ...... •...... •. 65 25. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, blue transparent and grey opaque cast resin discs. Source: Photographed by author in artist's studio, Venice, California ...... 66 Plate Page 26. View of Frederick Eversley's studio, seven cast resin discs on pedestals. Source: Photographed by author in artist's studio, Venice, California .•...... 67 27. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, blue opaque and pink transparent cast resin discs. Source: Photographed by author in artist's studio, Venice, California ...... •...... 68 28. HELEN PASHGIAN, early thin-layer oil painting, 1964. Source: Helen Pashgian ...... •...• 78 29. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, white opaque plexiglass box, cast resin sphere, 811 square, 1968. Source: Helen Pashgian . 79 30. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, cast resin and acrylic sphere, 1969. Source: Heleh Pashgian ...... 79 31. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, cast resin and acrylic sphere, 1969. Source: Helen Pashgian . 80 32. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, clear cast resin sphere, 1970. Source: Helen Pashgian • 80 33. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled Triptych (detail), left painting of triptych, cast resin, 36" X 72", 1975. Source: Helen Pashgian, exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine Art Gallery, December 5-27, 1975. Cat. no. 1...... 81 34. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, epoxy resin painting, 24" X 30", 1978. Source: Photographed by author at Westridge School for Girls Art Gallery, April, 1979 ...... •.. 82

uiii Plate Page 35. ROBERT BASSLER, Anatome Variation VI, cast resin 11 and brass, 18 , 1967. Source: Robert Bassler. 93 36. ROBERT BASSLER, Anatome Enclosure I, cast resin 11 and aluminum, 25 , 1968. Source: Robert Bassler ...... 94 37. ROBERT BASSLER, Total Enclosure III, cast resin and 11 aluminum, 24 , 1969. Source: Robert Bass 1er. . . . . 95 38. ROBERT BASSLER, Split Enclosure, cast resin, 11 20 ' 1970. Source: Robert Bassler ..... 96 39. ROBERT BASSLER, Double Concave, cast resin, 11 11 11 25 X 36 X 24 , 1971.

Source: Robert Bass 1er...... 0 . 97 40. Installation view of Robert Bassler exhibition at Amerika Haus, Berlin, March 1972.

Source: Robert Bassler...... 0 ...... 98 41. ROBERT BASSLER, Lenticular Column, cast resin, 11 11 11 57 X 15 X 19 , 1971. Source: Robert Bassler...... 99 42. ROBERT BASSLER, Lenticular Disc I' cast resin, 16 11 diameter, 1973.

Source: Robert Bassler. 0 ...... 100 43. ROBERT BASSLER, White Disc-White X/Barricade, 11 11 wood construction, 51" x 55 x 7 , 1977-78. Source: Robert Bassler ...... 101 44. ROBERT BASSLER, Disc Triptych/Road Show, photo 11 11 enlarged color xerox, 30 x 92 , 1978. Source: Robert Bassler ...... 101 Plate Page 45. DAVID ELDER, Sky Pool, vertical wall hanging cast resin disc, 14 11 diameter, 1973-74. Source: David Elder .... 109 46. DAVID ELDER, Sky Pool, cast resin disc on pedestal, 36 11 diameter, 1973-74. Source: David Elder .... 109

X FIGURES AND SOURCES

Figure Page 1. Comparison of cross section view of cast resin discs by DeWain Valentine, Fred Eversley, Helen Pashgian, Robert Bassler and David Elder. Source: Illustration by the author ...... 110 ABSTRACT

CAST RESIN SCULPTURE

FIVE LOS ANGELES ARTISTS: 1965-1972 by Gaye A. Mueller Master of Arts in Art History

In Los Angeles in the early 1960 1 s a style of art evolved, 11 fetish finish .. or the 11 L.A. Look, .. which could be seen as the first original artistic advancement to emanate from Southern California and placed ~os

Angeles on the map as a viable art center. The 11 L.A. Look, 11 with its emphasis on technologically produced 11 Clean 11 materials, took the form of beautiful, simple objects, vehicles for sensuous color combined with a captivation for light effects such as transparency, reflection and prismatic changes. The magical material was plastic and within its boundaries, there arose independently of one another, in 1965, a small group of artists who chose to work specifically with one medium--cast polyester resin sculpture--and who helped to promulgate the aesthetics of 11 fetish finish 11 art. Five aY'tists have been selected for this thesis through which to investigate the motives an artist had in choosing a medium, how the artist expressed himself through the medium,

xii how the artist modified his statement to fit the confines of the material, why the artist ceased using cast resin, and towards what direction the artist then turned. The artists discussed are DeWain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Frederick Eversley, Helen Pashgian and Robert Bassler. Within this group, there appeared numerous similari­ ties and overlaps in the reductive, geometric forms in which they chose to work; yet each artists• body of work remained quite individual. Their abandonment of cast resin by 1972 and the environmental concerns they next pursued, represented a new direction taken by Southern Cali­ fornia artists with the beginning of a new decade. Repercussions from the effects of 11 fetish finish, .. although no longer popular in Los Angeles art, are still recognizable in the sculpture and painting manifested in the area today.

•

xiii Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

The L.A. Look was a brief stylistic movement in Southern Califor­ nia art history, albiet of contemporary times. The Sunshine Muse by Peter Plagens, the only book devoted sol ely to exploring the hi story of . 1 West Coast art, saw this period as occurring from 1962 to 1968. It was a relatively long span of time for any style to last in this fast­ changing area; repercussions of the 11 Clean 11 look are still being felt up to the present. This movement saw a new use in media, specifically industrial-oriented materials lfke plastics, by artists concerned with a tight, precise surface. Its roots lie in New York Minimalism of the Sixties which explored industrial fabrication of art, resulting in an impersonal, anti-expressionistic execution of form within an extreme reductive format; rather than in the dictates of the all pervasive over-worked style of the San Francisco Abstract Expressionist and figurative painters, the predominate style on the West Coast. Early in the Sixties many of the artists began acquiring this look in their work. Los Angeles was a widespread community with the artists living primarily in one area, Venice, and aware of the struggles of one

1Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse, Praeger Publ .: New York, 1974, p. 20. 2

another to get their work recognized. Their studios became showplaces in which to exhibit their art. There were no major museums supporting the local art and very few galleries devoted to showing Los Angeles art. 11 Fetish Finish 112 sprang up largely as a reaction to the dead-end . expressionistic style emanating from San Francisco, the leading cul­ tural center on the West Coast up until the Sixties. The group of artists which gave birth to this new beginning came out of the seminal Ferus Gallery. The first moves were made through sculpture and assem­ blage which led to a sense of venturesomeness in the handling of mate- . 3 rials that became common to Los Angeles art. Peter Voulkos became a key figure by promoting a neutral ceramists• material, clay, to that of ceramic sculpture impressing a radical challenge to the notion of the hierarchy of sculptural materials. The works of some of the mem­ bers progressed from the gestural and Hard Edge style of the late Fifties to the revolutionary changes of the immaculate, plastic sur­ face. While the art scene in the early Sixties in Southern California became highly diversified and embodied a wide range of aesthetic atti­ tudes, the works of this group were among the first to achieve recogni­ tion in New York and collectively became characterized as the

2coined by John Coplans, the term 11 Fetish· Finish 11 was not intended derogatorily, but came to imply a slickness of surface .. Butterfield, Jan. 11 Larry Bell: Tran·sparent Motif, .. Art in America, Vol. 66, No. 5, September/October 1978, p. 95. 3coplans, John. 11 Los Angeles: The Scene, .. Art N~ws, Vol 64, March 1965, p. 57. 3

L.A. Look. 4 Not only did they hold a purist approach to materials but they showed an interest in perfection of surface, transparency, de­ objectification, de-emphasis on structure, and obsession with the reflective qualities of light.5 The material that most readily suited their needs was plastic. By 1965 there appeared eight to ten major artists working with one aspect of plastic art--cast poJyester resin sculpture. These artists, five of whom are introduced here, DeWain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Frederick Eversley, Helen Pashgian and Robert Bassler, helped to cultivate and define the aesthetics of 11 fetish finish ... They represented a wide di­ versification in the magnitude of usage of this specific medium. With­ in their oeuvre they shared many similarities and, yet, as artists they remained quite unique. Questions such as how they utilized this mate­ rial, how they interpreted its sculptural potential, how the critics viewed their art, and why they became associated with the L.A. Look shall be investigated. By 1972, cast resin sculptors no longer worked with this material and were searching for other means of expression; the reasons the artists abandoned the medium shall be postulated. According to Peter Plagens the L.A. Look began to change in 1968. This was partly the responsibility of an artist, James Turrell, who created the breakthrough of the decade by presenting a light installa­ tion at his first one person show at the Pasadena Museum of Art in

4sharp, Willoughby. 11 New Directions in Southern California Sculpture, .. Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, Summer 1970, p. 36.

5Baker, Elizabeth C. 11 Los Angeles, 1971, 11 Art News, Vol. 70, September 1971, p. 30. 4

September of 1967. He showed a small number of projected light images in geometric configurations about eight feet long on the walls and corners of the museum. 6 Perception of the environment became an integral experience of the work; he had liberated himself from many of the concerns that had characterized the "fetish finish"--precise craftsmanship, seductive color and the need to make beautiful objects-­ and instead experimented more directly with conceptual realizations of light and environment. As the L.A. Look was giving way to a more environmental approach to sculpture, the cast resin sculptors were seeing a high point in popularity of their work from the years 1968 to 1970 culminating in a decline by 1972. Their work became an extension of the fetish-finish look and carried overtones of the art and technology style of the late Sixties and the aesthetics of Los Angeles light/space art. Conse­ quently, even though fetish-finish declined by 1968, the resin artists carried its impulse and modified their work towards more purist concerns. By 1972, the variation in attitude away from the L.A. Look was reflected in the works of the resin sculptors. From their involvement with the effects of spectral changes within a transparent mass, many of these artists went on to explore various forms of light environments either natural changes in the sunset or created environments using installations or film-making.

6sharp, Willoughby, p. 37. 5

Due in large part to the innovations of these 11 fetish finish 11 artists, by the end of the Sixties Los Angeles had established itself as a productive art center. Works by Los Angeles artists were appear­ ing in group shows and solo exhibitions across the country. In these shows, it was apparent that Southern California artists had a specific attitude toward the handling of plastic forms. The most significant achievement of the artists, aside from placing Los Angeles sculpture in museums and private collections, was that they helped Los Angeles to become recognized from then on as producing ·artists of the caliber of those in New York, Europe and comparable art centers around the world. Chapter 2

THE LOS ANGELES ART SCENE IN THE SIXTIES

Within a particular area, when the local artists begin to utilize untraditional art materials such as plastics and glass, employed here­ tofore only in industry, the question arises, what is it about that region that led to this unprecedented use of new sculptural and paint­ erly materials! Specifically, what is it about Southern California that caused such a strong preoccupation with plastics? This is not to say that Los Angeles was the only city utilizing plastics for artistic purposes, but a large number of artists were concerned in a unique way. Southern California attitudes on art developed in the 1950 1s largely from a reaction to San Francisco Abstract Expressionist art. It is incredible that in pre-1960•s Los Angeles art, there is relative­ ly no tradition of painting and especially no tradition of sculpture. In the Fifties there was no real school, although the current in paint­ ing was going in two directions: Abstract Expressionism of Sam Francis and figurative painting of Richard Diebenkorn which led towards assemblage and was derived directly from San Francisco styles, and linear Hard Edge exemplified by Larsen Feitelson and John Mclaughlin

c 7 which led towards the sleek, technological processes of the

11 L.A. Look. 111 In Los Angeles the Ferus Gallery, opened in 1957-1958 by assem­ blage artist Edward Kienholz, art historian Walter Hopps, and collector Irving Blum, provided a nucleus for Los Angeles artists; the original stable included John Altoon, Craig Kauffman, Billy Al Bengston, Kenneth Price, Edward Moses, Paul Sarkisian, Richard Ruben, and Wallace Berman, later to include other first-generation artists Robert Irwin, Larry Bell and Ed Ruscha. The Ferus .Gallery showed primarily San Francisco artists, as well as early shows of such New York artists like Warhol, Lichtenstein, Stella, Kelly, Johns and others. Additionally it was the only showplace for the new genera­ tion of Los Angeles artists.2 By 1960, a reaction to San Francisco attitudes had begun, largely as a reaction to the all-pervasive, heavy Abstract Expressionist look and Bay-area figurative painting of Clifford Still and Richard Diebenkorn. Our of this evolved what has been termed the 11 L.A. Look, 11 the 11 Cool School" (dubbed by Phil Leider3), and 11 Fetish Finish 11 with its emphasis on technologically produced 11 clean 11 materials and processes. Of the Ferus Gallery artists, those who became Fetish-Finishists were Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, and

1Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse, Praeger Publications: New York, 1974, p. 24.

2wortz, Me 1 i nda. 11 The •Coo 1 Schoo V , 11 Art News, Vol. 75, No. 6, Summer 1976, p. 142. 3Ibid. 8

Ed Moses. This small group of Los Angeles artists, whose average age was around twenty-five in 1960, began to defect from the gestural Abstract Expressionist painting of which they were concerned. Almost all were originally painters in this idiom, and turned their atten­ tions towards developing a body of sculpture, mostly in plastic, which featured a highly polished surface, a professional concern with craftsmanship and an exploration of the reflective properties of light. Craig Kauffman was among the first to abandon the Abstract Expressionist mode of open gestural painting. By 1963 his flat, simple paintings developed into clean, vacuum-formed plastic acrylic wall-sculptures, which were sprayed with raw colors from the inside resulting in a perfection of surface finish. He states that his colors w~re obviously influenced by a very bright-light situation,4 • a light that has affected most artists residing in Southern California. Billy Al Bengston, also coming from Abstract Expressionism, by 1961 had talked about industrial materials and began spraying aluminum and masonite squares with oils, lacquers and acrylics, achieving a slick, clean finish for his heart, flower and chevron motifs. He has made use of all the techniques and paints developed for the custom finishes of the hot-rod car culture.5

4Butterfield, Jan. 11 0n Location: Four Interviews, Six Artists, 11 Art in America, Vol. 64, Part 2, July-August 1976, p. 82. 5wi ner, He 1ene. 11 How Los Ange 1es Looks Today, 11 Studio, Vo 1 . 182, No. 937, October 1971, p. 128. 9

When Larry Bell was still a painter, he recessed glass shapes in a series of Hard Edge canvases in order to achieve the illusion of volume, the contours of the canvas shaped in an attempt to present volume two-dimensionally. Dissatisfied with the limitations of a flat painting surface, by 1961, Bell began making a variety of glass boxes, the sides of some carrying mirrored elliptical forms. By 1964 these culminated into glass cube constructions coated with minerals vaporized on the g~ass in a vacuum chamber, becoming minimal works in elusive transparency and reflectivity.6 Robert Irwin, the oldest of the group, had long been involved with subtleties of color beginning with his meticulously executed mono­ chromatic bar paintings. By 1964-1967 he created circular aluminum, then plastic, discs sprayed with soft light tones of paint and illuminated from four 1ight sources to incorporate cast shadows. This group of artists was among the first to draw attention to Los Angeles as a thriving art center; they were the first to do work cohesive and individual enough to identify themselves as unique to Los Angeles. 7 The L.A. Look referred primarily to the way in which these artists exploited new materials such as fiberglass, acrylics, cast polyester resin, glass and enamel paints. These materials had a common quality of visual richness, play of light and surface depth and were flawlessly executed with technological sophistication; the

6 Friedman, Martin. 11 Fourteen Sculptors: The Industrial Edge, .. Art International, Vol. 14, Part 2, February 1970, p. 38.

7Winer, He 1ene. 11 How Los Ange 1es Looks Today, 11 p. 128. 10 hand-worked trace of the artist's endeavor leaving no evidence. Gone were the expressionistic tendencies of earlier sculpture such as that of David Smith, Louise Nevelson, and Joseph Cornell. The Sixties saw a growth of technology in many areas such as space and the development of new industrial materials such as some forms of plastics, so why should this technology not enter into the field of art? The proliferation in usage of new materials in Los Angeles represented a strong offshoot of a tendency existing in other places, especially among the New York Minimalists, such that this new found exploration became an extreme concentration of one particular phase of a generalized Sixties aesthetic: a concern with precise form such that ther·e is a cons i derab 1e psycho 1ogi ca 1 distance between artist, object and observer. This became apparent in a major exhibi­ tion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1967, "Amedcan Sculpture of the Sixties." The curator Maurice Tuckman, saw that the key trend emerging from the show was the artist's involvement in advanced technology.8 The show featured eighty artists both from the West Coast and East Coast and exhibited numerous examples by recognized artists of large scale, technologically sophisticated, reductive sculpture. Time magazine reviewed the exhibition and stated: "The California show also clearly demonstrates that the new cool geometry, which is often combined with bright color or gleaming industrial surfaces, is a truly nationwide movement. And the West Coast is at least as skillful as the East Coast." 9

8"White Wings in the Sunlight." Time, Vol. 89, No. 19, May 12, 1967, pp. 80-83. 9Ibid. 11

Characteristically, the Los Angeles art exhibited in the Sixties differed from New York Minimal Art in that it took the form of beauti- ful objects, vehicles for luminous, sensuous color plus an obsession with light effects such as reflection, refraction, transparency, spectral changes and mirror optics which led to dematerialization and de-objectification. The critics went into lengthy speculation as to why Los Angeles artists have been so given to plastics and so infatuated with light. Southern California is said to have an extremely high intensity of natural light, especially around the beach areas such as Venice where most of the artists have at one time resided. Numerous artists speak of this quality of light which, because of the latitude, is entirely different from New York light. The critic and writer John Lloyd Taylor states:

11 lt is a different type of light, more intense, more constant. Alo~g the Venice beaches light never seems to disappear, the sky dominates everything, while pre­ vailing winds cause an extraordinary variety of cloud formations. There one is so totally aware of natural light that it becomes an unconscious awareness. Light becomes and is a state of mind, and it is this which has deeply affected and influenced the work of many California artists: Valentine, Bell, Alexander, Robert Irwin and Ron Cooper, to name but a few. 11 10 Many artists work with plastics, especially polyester resin, in an attempt to add this quality of light to their work, to observe the quality of light as it passes through transparent/translucent objects. The critic Melinda Wortz writes:

10Taylor, John Lloyd. 11 DeWain Valentine, .. Art International, Vol. 17, No.7, September 1973, p. 24. 12

"I think it is important to consider that many artists involved with light as a medium, particularly Irwin and DeWain Valentine, as well as Pashgian, find their original inspiration from the direct observation of nature in the form of environmental light, rather than from other artists or aesthetic theories. In other words, their art comes from personal, perceptual response rather than from intellectual or academic formulae." 11

The culture of the city in the mid-Fifties and early Sixties directly influenced Fetish Finish art. Carol Lindsley explored these tendencies in her article "Plastics Into Art," in a review of one of the first all-plastic art exhibitions held in 1967 in San Francisco. She sees that in Los Angeles, youth developed a preoccupation with custom cars, specifically with immaculately painted surfaces of brilliant color combined with metalflake. Alterations in the shape of cars were made by using "body putty," a polyester resin used to mold new forms. Also the cult of the surfboard arose which saw youth becoming familiar with fiberglass and resin.· Lindsley feels most of the West Coast artists involved with plastics were of an age to have been impressed by the aesthetics of the custom cars. Many of them have approached the auto body shops, the boat and surfboard manufacturers, and plastic firms for technical information. 12 The artist, Billy Al Bengston states:

11wortz, Melinda. Helen Pashgian, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, December 1975.

12Lindsley, Carol. "Plastics Into Art," Art in America, Vol. 56, June 1968, p. 114. 13

11 My earlier work took off from things I saw in the street: cars, signs, etc.--man-made things that we see in harsh Cali­ fornia light. And, of course, .. Los Angeles was and is a car culture--something I was into when I was younger, So I used car and sign painting materials and colors the way an artist would any other kind of color. I was interested in both the dense colors of the paint and the metallic curface qualities ... 13 Many critics agreed the hot rod cult affected the attitudes of these new artists. Article after article mentions this influence. Plus it gave the critics an opportunity to elaborate on the effects this surface preoccupation could achieve. The satirical critic, William Wilson, writes in his article 11 The Explosion That Never Went Boom: 11 11 Finish has been revived ... but never as a basic aspect of media until a couple of ahistorical, anti-intellectual, sensually oriented Californians began to use it, probably because they simply didn't know it was forbidden and they were fascinated by the glossy, lacquered paint on Califor­ nia hot rods. They found that glassy finish destroys surface in a painted object. If a surface is sufficiently polished, the paint on it no longer looks like a skin lying on top of a support; it looks like an atmosphere of indeterminate density under the finish. Thus the artists of the 'fetish finish' were able to produce effects of density without employing traditional means of opening deep space--oblique lines and horizontally based color blends ... 14 The L.A. Look became recognized in New York and on the West Coast as the predominate Southern California art style. From 1967 until 1972, plastic works by Los Angeles artists were shown in major exhibi­ tions across the country. Numerous shows were held which had as their

13Rubinfien., Leo. 11 Through Western Eyes, .. Art in America, September-October 1978, p. 78.

14wilson, William. 11 The Explosion That Never Went Boom, 11 Saturday Review, Vol. 50, Part 3, September 23, 1967, p. 55. 14 theme, plastic art. The critics tended to give very favorable reviews to these artists like Kauffman, Irwin, McCracken, Alexander, Valentine, Terry O'Shea, Judy Chicago and others working in plastic imagery. It was as if the critics were in awe of the technological processes in­ volved and consequently spent time explaining, in their reviews, the process of casting or vacuum forming or painting with fiberglass and resin and the illusion the process produced. One of the earliest shows, "Plastics Into Art," held at the Hanson Gallery in San Francisco in November, 1967, gave an indication of the expanding interest held in the exploitation of plastics by a large number of West Coast artists such as Bruce Beasley, Ron Cooper, DeWain Valentine, Doug Edge, and Ron Davis. 15 1968 saw a burgeoning of exhib­ itions spreading across the United States devoted primarily to art constructed of pla~tic materials: "Plastics, L.A." at California State College, Los Angeles; "West Coast Now" at the Portland Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art; "Transparency Reflection 11 at California State College, Los Angeles; "Made of Plastic" at the Flint Institute of Arts in Michigan; and "Plastic As Plastic" at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York. 1969 produced two major shows which attempted to define the directions taken by Sixties sculpture in the industrial vernacular that began with Minimalism. 11 Fourteen Sculptors: The Industrial Edge, 11 organized by Martin Friedman for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis,

15Lindsley, Carol. "Plastics Into Art," pp. 114-115. 15

showed the great diversity of new sculpture involving itself with purely formalist ideas. Friedman sees these sculptors as beginning their artistic development in the Abstract Expressionist vein, as almost all were originally painters in the idiom, and that much of sculpture's concerns has retained the character of .this crossover from Abstract Expressionist painter to anti-expressionistic interpretation. In this sculpture, Friedman argues, the careful fabrication and smooth, even surfaces leave no evidence of the artist's craftsmanship, which is an opposite concern of expressionist painting and sculpture with their hand-worked qualities.16 He grouped the show into various categories such as the Minimalist theorists, Don Judd and Robert Morris; the engineered romanticism of Robert Grosvenor and Ronald Bladen; and the Venice surface of Larry Bell, Peter Alexander, DeWain Valentine and Craig Kauffman comparing this last grouping to two New York plastic artists, David Weinrib and Sylvia Stone. Friedman sees:

~In the art produced in Venice, there is concern with exquisite surface, reflection and transparency--in short, the painterly issues of the original Venice .... Unlike the young California artists in this exhibition, for whom plastics have become the basis of a new media-oriented aesthetic, New York artists use this material to build on existing traditions ... 17

11 A Plastic Presence .. was seen in 1969-1970 at the Jewish Museum, the Milwaukee Art Center and the San Francisco Museum of Art; it endeavored to organize an exhibition of approximately fifty well-known artists

16 Friedman, Martin. 11 Fourteen Sculptors: The Industrial Edge, .. p. 31. 17 Ibid., p. 36, 38. 16 working with some aspect of plastics from all around the country. 18 11 A Plastic Presence .. attempted to give an historical summary and that was probably its greatest achievement. Works by-Southern California plastic artists continued to be seen in numerous shows but not in an exhibition offering solely plastic art works. With the beginning of the new decade, the art and technology move­ ment of the Sixties was fading away. This was never more apparent than in the 11 Art and Technology Show 11 held in the summer of 1971 at the Los Angeles County Museum of·Art. The exhibition was conceived in 1967 by Maurice Tuchman and undertook to allow large corporations and industry to work in conjunction with artists to produce technically exhibitable art. However, the idea belonged in the decade of the Sixties when big corporations were enjoying unchallenged optimism and confidence rather than to the Seventies where unemployment, recession and inflation had decimated the economic optimism of the public. The idea was outdated before it began. Of the more than two hundred artists originally contacted to participate in the experiment, only sixteen projects were realized.19 To fully express the concurrent feelings of the times, in 1972 11 The Last Plastics Show .. was held at the California Institute of the Arts with a nostalgia selection of twenty-four artists working in the

18Muller, Gregoire. 11 A Plastic Presence, .. Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, November 1969, p. 36-37.

19 Kozloff, Max. 11 The Multimillion Dollar Art Boondoggle, .. Artforum, Vol. 10, Part 1, October 1971, pp. 72-76. · 17 material. By 1972 the artists working with plastics knew that it was time to search for other artistic materials; most felt a desire to return to more traditional approaches to creating art. The art and technology fad of the Sixties was over. The aesthetics of a new decade had begun to permeate the Los Angeles art scene. To further understand the changes that took place within the art scene in Los Angeles due to the rise in popularity of Fetish Finish, a group of artists has been selected that work with one specific medium-­ cast resin sculpture. The usage of resin by these artists paralleled the rise of the L.A. Look and in fact, helped to create it. The evolu­ tion of the work these resin sculptors went on to produce was analogous to the decline in popularity of generalized Sixties aesthetics such as art and technology, clean surface, the usage of plastics as an art material, and, to a certain extent, whether a sculpture should exist as more than a visually pTeasing object. As the art emanating from Southern California changed in the early Seventies, these artists also altered their concerns towards more contemporary issues. In examining a particular artistic medium, it is advantageous to look at various artists and how they have developed a personal state­ ment working within the confines of that medium. Due to the limiting nature of the resin itself, the individual interpretations of the artists were similar in many respects. Each of the cast resin sculp­ tors wished to explore the transparent potentials of the material and ended up quickly becoming captivated by the optical phenomena the resin produced, even ending up using the same minimal circle/lens shape in order to study the spectral prism. From then on, most of the artists 18 pursued the direction of light effects using a variety of environmental media such as film, 11 camera obscura, 11 scrim and installations. Up until recently only two of these artists were still working with cast resin, Helen Pashgian and Fred Eversley, but now DeWain Valentine and Terry o•shea are utilizing it in their work. An attempt shall be made to understand why the majority of artists stopped working with resin and began exploring other artistic concepts by studying closely a select few of these cast resin sculptors. The five artists discussed are DeWain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Frederick Eversley, Helen Pashgian and Robert Bassler. Chapter 3

DEWAIN VALENTINE

DeWain Valentine became concerned with surface finish early in his life when he was employed to work on fiberglass boat hulls. In 1950 he concurrently was painting cars in his father• s garage and working on custom cars covering them with multiple layers of lacquer and metal flake. 1 In 1961 Valentine was producing sculpture of thin shell struc­ tures of polyester resin and fiberglass. By the mid-Sixties, he was one of several Los Angeles artists sharing a taste for a precise, clean surface. Originally a native of Colorado, he received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. At the University of Colo­ rado, he was a student of Roland Reiss, an artist who employed cast resin to make a variety of objects which fit into miniature tableaux. 2 In his art, he evolved from paintings of the sky which reasserted his interest in transparent, colored space to bronze castings filling holes in bronze and wood with polyester, to an artist working in cast resin and fiberglass. Having taught design and drawing at the University of

1oanieli, Fidel. 11 DeWain Valentine, .. Art International, Vol. 13, November 1969, p. 36. 2Interview with Robert Bassler at California State University, Northridge, February 12, 1979.

1n < •

20

Colorado from 1958-1961, in 1965 he came to Los Angeles and was hired at the University of California, Los Angeles to teach plastics, remain­ ing there two years. At that time Peter Alexander was there in graduate school. According to Valentine, he gave Alexander information on casting resin and helped him develop the wedge shape which made up a large body of both of their work. 3 By 1965 Valentine was fabricating large-scale works by applying fiberglass shell construction methods, the only method available at that time in resin which would allow the artist to create works larger than twelve inches. He explored highly symmetrical curved volumes for his first mature works, sharply pointed conical rocket shapes repeated in multiples presented usually in a group of three and the fiberglass painted a brilliant color such as a red candy cane complete with stripes. Variants of this idea, which

proved more satisfactory, were seen at 11 Scul pture of the 60 •s 11 an important show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1967. These

multiple fiberglass saucer shapes or 11 yo-yo•s 11 leaned on each other in such a way as to suggest movement, for example, Yellow Top executed in 1967. The large-scale cones and tops were finished in combined mix­ tures of intensely-hued spray colors and a reflective metal flake finish layered beneath a clear shine of lacquer-like resin. The fiber­ glass forms of this period up until 1968 demonstrated major character­ istics of his style: the preference for the volumetric stability of

3It is more likely that Alexander developed the wedge shape and that Valentine borrowed the shape from him. Valentine•s work tended to center around curvilinear shapes whereas Alexander•s early work was always concerned with geometric forms such as the cube, the wedge and the pyrami d. 21 enclosing .curved or circular perimeters, the use of repeated units, the strong implication of kinetic energy, and an amplitude of volume nearly pneumatic pulled taut to a sharply-defined perimeter.4 Valentine•s first solid cast polyester resin pieces appeared in 1966. Limited by the kind of resin available at the time (successful casting of only a maximum of twelve inches could be achieved) these were small ten inch by four inch discs, double convex, saucer shapes, prototypes for his later monumental seven foot discs. Some of these earliest discs were solid grey, a dense neutral color that when viewed from one angle appeared as a solid color mass or, from another angle, as a translucent mass with prismatic effects in varying light condi­ tions. In one of these early discs, Disc, Yellow-Green, actually a solid green casting, the edges appeared green and dissolved to yellow towards the thinner outer sections. Valentine permitted the sculptural mass to become an impressive vehicle for color and experimented with violets, blues, reds and yellows, always in solid form. Yet, because of their small size, they appeared more opaque than translucent. Here he began to deal with an important aspect of his artistic statement, the prismatic break-up of spectral color.5 Valentine has always had a propensity towards monumentality in his sculpture but it was impossible to increase the size of these discs due to the limited information available at the time about solid casting

4oanieli, Fidel. p. 37.

5Taylor, John Lloyd. 11 0eWain Valentine, .. Art International, Vol. 17, No. 7, September 1973, p. 21. 22 processes of polyester resin. In 1967-68 he experimented with castings of double pyramids and executed a series of massive rings with hollow centers. He developed the wedge-shaped slab forms, rarely more than twenty-three inches high with a bottom dimension of about ten inches wide by five inches thick, which were remarkably similar to those of Peter Alexander. The minimal format of the simple wedge provided a reductive sculptural context whereby he could deal more directly with volumetric form as a natural carrier of transparent-translucent color and diffracted-diffused light. Usually cast in lavender or pink, the greatest mass of color appeared at the denser bottom and shifted to an almost total transparency as the shape tapered upward. 6 In 1968 he broke the materials barrier and developed, in conjunc­ tion with Hastings Plastics of Santa Monica, a solid casting process enabling himself and others to finally accomplish large-scale resin sculpture. In 1969 the first curved wall-like slabs were executed weighing well over a thousand pounds. Large Curved Slab, 1970, was eight feet high and wide with a thickness of two inches and functioned as architectural space. Important was the interior space, the color transparency inside the boundaries of the curved slab, which presented visual and spatial illusion. As the observer viewed it frontally, obliquely or looking into the edges, different visual phenomena were observed, including space seen through and on the other side of the slab and color and light as they subtly fluctuate within the interior space.

6Ibid., p. 22w 23

Simultaneous with the creation of the curved slabs was the begin­ ning of the most significant body of Valentine•s work--the circle forms. This shape was conceived as the most non-object oriented form enhancing sculptural reductiveness. The form was minimized to a degree that one•s awareness was directed towards the interior color effects within the circle more so than to the sculptural abjectness of the circle itself. From 1969 to 1973, five different types of discs evolved, each bearing an entirely different optical effect. The large double concave circles w.ere some of the most ambitious works he has attempted combining technical excellence, sculptural monumentality and prismatic optical illusion. Concave Circle, 1970 measured seventy-two inches in diameter with a base width of twenty-five inches narrowing to twenty-one inches at the top. It had a total weight of around 3500 pounds and rested on a point no wider than an inch. The sculpture acted as an immense optical lens with wide angle distortions. Although it was a deep purple coloration, through diffusing and diffracti.ng spectral light it appeared in varying degrees of opacity to transpar­ ency and encompassed a spectral range from tones of violet to blue to red to subtle rose-grey. The critic John Lloyd Taylor saw this work as an important monument in contemporary sculpture in terms of its sheer volume and scale complemented by a practically flawless interior and pristine surface.7 Two other types of circles were also one-color castings, both were flat on one side, the opposite side on one was concave and on the other convex. The natural prismatic effects were

7Ibid., p. 23. 24

different yet they were still pure physical color volumetrically sus­ pended in space. Another shape was concave-convex, a double casting within the same mold, with two differently pigmented resins acting in color progression. In 1970 he introduced modulated flowing color, rather than solid color, whereby this fifth group of discs became pictorial as well as illusionistic. The circles were poetically titled

Circle, Blue Smoke Flow, one of th~ earliest from 1970 and Circle, Clear Smoke from 1971. Edgeless lyrical shapes flowed throughout the interior in a sensuous movement, each distinctly remained unique and individual. Valentine, as well as many other artists working with cast resin, abandoned the medium by 1971-72 and searched for other materials of expression. Whereas polyester resin gave off a limited spectra of color when hit with a light source, clear acrylic with its superior optical clarity, will project the complete spectrum and cast it onto a nearby surface. In 1972 he experimented with a series of acrylic rings with five-sided edges which would react more as prisms breaking up light into spectral colors. As the acrylic ring was colorless compared to the slight translucency of resin, the objects tended to diminish the physical structure, thus becoming a. conveyor of light-defined space.8 Valentine had a one person show in April 1973 at Chicago•s Walter Kelly Gallery which consisted of six rings. The gallery became an incredible interplay of prismatic color and light in a white space. In his work, Valentine has attempted to achieve the sensation that one is totally, physically surrounded by color masses.

8Ibid., p. 24 25

From 1970-1972 he constructed an eighty foot cast acrylic rod, one inch thick, Catenary Light, suspending it diagonally from opposite corners of an entirely white room fourteen feet high by thirty feet square. It is presently installed in his studio in Venice. Where the rod is attached to the ceiling, it enters a small hole exposed to the outside and daylight passes through the illuminated rod casting a soft light within the room, the intensity of illumination changing with the amplification of exterior light. The acrylic rod is a physical object yet its role is as a vehicle for light. Based on studies of the prin­ ciple of fiber optics, Valentine created an installation of a similar manner, V Line in 1975 at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and a similar installation at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1977 which consisted of two long, one and one half inch tubes piercing the ceiling at the end of one wall and anchored to the floor diagonally across tne room. Also at La Jor1a he dealt with sunlight manipulation in another installation, Cantilevered Planes, in which he cantilevered. two large acrylic sheets passing through slits in the wall on one side of a room from which light was able to pass through, thereby outlining three sides of each plane in intensely transformed daylight.9 At the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1975 he constructed a Spectrum Horizon Installa- tion consisting of a scrim across a room on which "camera obscura" images of the natural phenomena happening outside on the beach (a small aperture near the center of four masonite panels projected outdoor

9Plagens, Peter. DeWain Valentine, Exhibition catalogue, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, June 28-August 3, 1975, p. 1. 26

light onto the scrim) were projected upside down creating a continuous­ ly moving panorama of scenes in four overlapping images. Also in large photographs of sunsets, Valentine allowed a spectral band of color to hover over the horizon line.10 For more than fifteen years, the art of DeWain Valentine has been concerned with a method of projecting colored light into space from his subtly colored discs to his recent installation pieces. His interest in transparent resin came from its capacity for floating ethereal color in depth or space in a way that is analogous to a natural, perceptual awareness of the suspension of color in the sky. 11 He has continued these concerns in his recent installation pieces which have explored natural light phenomena as a method of heightening the awareness of the perceptual processes for the observer. He is one of the few artists who have successfully surmounted the problems of sculptural abjectness by his continuous probing into new dimensions of color - light - space phenomenon. This rather glorious quote by Fidel Danieli alludes to Valentine's achievements in cast resin:

11 He has opened up the possibility of ·immense size with this temperamental material, and one hears of a number of sculptors deferring to his breakthrough .•.•• His six foot tall slabs and eight by eight foot wall are more than convincing proof that he is very likely the world's most advanced master in this medium. 111 2

10wortz, Melinda. DeWain Valentine: Documentation of Spectrum Horizon Installation, Long Beach Museum of Art, February 23- September 7, 1975.

11 Ibid.

12oanieli, Fidel. p. 38

! . 27

Plate 1. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Three Discs, yellow fiberglass and res i n , 19 67 . 28

Plate 2. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Large Wedge, yellow and pink cast resin, 1968. Plate 3. View of the DeWain Valentine exhibition at the Bischofbergen Gallery in Zurich, 1969.

N 1..0 30 .

Plate 4. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Curved Slab), blue cast 11 11 11 resin, 84 x 84 x 2 , 1970.

Plate 5. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Disc), red transparent cast resin, 1970. 31

- / '

Plate 6. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Concave Circle, cast resin, 11 11 72 X 25 , 1970. 32

Plate 7. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Circle, Clear Smoke, cast resin, 11 11 34- 3/16 X 2-1/4 , 1971. 33

Plate 8. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Untitled (Ring Sculpture), acrylic, 48" diameter, 1972. ------~-- --

34

Plate 9. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Catenary Light, acrylic rod, 80' X 1", 1970-72. 35

Plate 10. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Diamond Column, cast resin, 6' high, 1978. Plate 11. DEWAIN VALENTINE, Cantilevered Planes, plexiglass sheets, 624" x 144" x 228", 1975.

w 0"1 Chapter 4

PETER ALEXANDER

An artist whose success with cast resin sculpture equals that of . DeWain Valentine is Peter Alexander. Originally educated in architec­ ture at the University of Southern California he attended graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles as a sculptor and received his B.A. in 1965 and M.F.A. in 1968. By 1965 he was working with cast resin sculpture; the only other artists known to be using the medium at that time·were Terry O'Shea1 and Robert Bassler, all working independently of one another. He first became acquainted with resin in the Fifties through its use in glazing surfboards. The first pieces Alexander executed were plastic landscapes con- tained in plexiglass boxes.

11 The idea was that you would project yourself into these landscapes by looking into a box, and that wa? its most signi­ ficant quality, as a box it was a container that was absolute, it was a cube, you didn't become concerned about the outside, all you became concerned about was what was happening inside ....2 His next development was an attempt to work out the interior in another

1rnterview with Peter Alexander at the artist's studio, Tuna Canyon, California, May 5, 1978. 2Wight, FrederickS. Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: Four Artists, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Los Angeles, January 11-February 14, 1971, p. 9.

37 38 material so Alexander tried it in transparent resin. He did a casting of an eight inch wax head and placed it inside a transparent purple box; the resin was cast around the figure in layers. Boiling water added to the wax removed it. In another similar piece, he formed ab­ stract clouds out of wax, took a latex cast of the wax clouds and cast them in resin. Again he added layers of resin to suspend the interior cloud-like forms in Cloud Box of 1966. A year later the subject matter was dropped in favor of mysterious, hovering puffs created by absorbed water vapor which were embedded within a solid four inch cube. 3 Alexander•s first major influence was a contemporary, Larry Bell, at the time Bell was making tinted glass boxes. He became involved with the interior focusing in Bell •s cubes, the way they dealt directly with interior space.4 Having seen Bell 1 s glass cubes, he was inspired by the fact that they were beautiful machine-made objects; there were no vestiges of a human touch. These cubes were totally industrial, anonymous, and perfectly constructed. Alexander realized that there did not have to be any images, that he could deal directly with color transparency, density and scale. He also realized that the cubes were not an interesting shape for this exploration. The fact that they were box-like started to become a weakness in the sense that they could not extend themselves beyond being contained objects which could be looked into.5

3oanieli, Fidel A. 11 Some New Los Angeles Artists, .. Artforum, Vol. 6, No. 7, March 1968, p. 45-46.

4Pl agens, Peter. 11 The Sculpture of Peter Alexander,.. Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 1, October 1970, p. 48. 5wight, Frederick S. p. 10. 39

He next pursued the alternative to simply make objects which would cause an environmental sensation. Alexander wished to utilize directly an architectural space or, as an alternative, to make objects which could influence an existing space in an extraordinary manner. 6 From these thoughts came the series of wedges which were meant to augment a space by their sculptural presence. Their relationship to an environ­ ment depended on the positioning the sculpture demanded within a parti­ cular space. They had to be positioned according to a light source so that they could gather light and reflect the quality of l_ight in a room. These relatively clear, subtly pastel tinted 11 doorstop-shaped 11 wedges, six to eight feet high, were shown at Janie Lee's gallery in Dallas in 1969.

11 They were objects that could remain as people. They were tall, they were slender, they were what I was. I mean I'm six feet one and I'm slender and that was the identity that these pieces took .•.. Add to this that the piece is standing from the floor and that it rises vertically and is self sustaining. It's most immediate identity is that of a figure, not so much being a person but a presence in space in which it is located ... 7 Characteristically pinkish or lavender/blue grey, they had an eight inch base and tapered off to practically nothing at the top. At certain times of the day when the light was a certain quality, the top could disappear; the wedge was always changing. Critical reaction was very favorable to these wedges partly due to the exoticism of the material. Emily Wasserman reviewed these tall,

6Ibid., p. 15. 7Ibid., p. 11. 40

narrow obelisks seen at Alexander•s first one-person show in New York I at the Elkon Gallery, in 1969:

11 Suffused green-mauve, milky lavender-blue, smokey grey and violet-amethyst hues make these pristinely simple, singular shapes into fragile jewel-like encasements. Depending on light source and situation ... the polyester resin may appear extremely dense, self-contained and solid, or its substance may appear to be completely dissolved, the disembodied carrier of some elusively lovely source of illumination ... 8 In 1970 he stopped casting the wedge shape. They had embodied qualities which Alexander at the time was concerned with, they were arty, elegant, polished, and they dealt with an object as light. How­ ever, he began to object to the fact that they were so formal; they appeared to be almost icon-like in their structure, detached.9 In 1970, Alexander exhibited at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles, a group of nine foot long, triangular cross-sectioned, transparent bars leaning casually against the wall. Each bar was in­ stalled with the base of the bar eighteen to twenty-four inches away from the wall and lighted overhead and frontally with spot lights which caused illusionistic optical effects. 11 What happened ... was that as they (the bars) came off of the wall the middle began to disappear because of the fact you had light coming from behind it. And then the top and the bottom became heavy ... Not only did it begin to fuse with the environ­ ment right in the dead center of the piece but it began to negate its own structure which I thought was interesting ... 10

8wasserman, Emily. 11 New York Review, 11 Artforum, Vol. 7, Part 2, May 1969, p. 65. 9Plagens, Peter. p. 49-50. 10wight, Frederick S. p. 24. 41

The bars set up a relationship which had not existed in the wedges be­ cause the wedge shape was self-sustaining. The leaning bars set up a relationship between the floor and the wall and tended to lose them­ selves in the vertical middle. The bars were cast in a triangle cross section with the point of the triangle facing downward, the color arrangements resulting from this method were crucial. Since the bars were poured point down, the last of the fluid resin filled the outer edges; the center of the piece was the most intense, the edges the most transparent. Different colors and combinations of colors elicited varied sensations from a purely pink bar to a two-color casting with an indigo center and yellow edge. Color became, in Alexander•s work, the prime sculptural element because color was responsible for the amount and quality of the transparency and transparency was responsible for the degree of a pieces object­ ness.11 With the wedges, Alexander admitted to being very timid about his use of color which he said he did not understand. It was not until the leaning pieces, the prisms, that he became involved with the idea of juxtaposing one color with another in the same piece. His decision on the choice of colors.was to use complimentary colors and then find an aberrant combination and try to make it work. 12 In some cases the color and the piece worked well together. Alexander made about thirty of the leaning bars, kept fourteen and out of these fourteen, there were about six which he considered better than the others.13

11Plagens, Peter. p. 51 12wight, FrederickS. p. 28 13 Ibid., p. 29. 42

His third major body of sculpture consisted of a grouping of thin slabs partially or wholly opaque, mounted flat against the wall as in a painting. Considering the sequence of development from the wedges to these thin slabs, the wedges dealt directly with the floor and inci­ dentally with the wall, the leaning prisms dealt with the floor and the wall at the same time, and the new thin slabs happened to relate totally with the wa11. 14 They ranged in width from four to fourteen inches, were one-half inch thick to wafer thin at the edges and were seven and one-half feet in length. The spacing on the wall was arbi­ trary; they appeared to hover, to float off the wall. He cast them on a mylar covered table in long trenches, about seventy pieces that varied in color, density, and opacity. No further finish was required after peeling off the mylar, as a smooth eggshell surface was left. He would then select a combination of two or three colors that were close and mount them on nails in the wall. The sculpture was a narrow series of vertical bands, one grouping was five columns of cool, purple and blue tones, another grouping consisted of nine columns of warm yellow and red tonalities. Shown at UCLA in January 1971, were three group­ ings of the thin convex strips mounted on three walls. Melinda Terbell reviewed the show 11 Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: Four Artists" for Arts Magazine:

14 Ibid., p. 32. 43

11 The light is concentrated in the center of the room rather than on the works and diffuses gently outward like daylight. The colors are lovely muted pastels. The longer one looks at them the more elusive they become. The edges of the units cannot be perceived, the col or seems to exist as an entity on its ovm rather than as part of a material object, and the sense of the material existence of the walls is lost - they seem to pulsate ... 15 Alexander spent two years with these slabs. In 1972 he did a series of drips which were never shown. He would take a twelve foot inclined plank, cover it with mylar, and pour on colored resin; it would cure by the time the resin reached six to seven feet. He could do as many as fifteen of these in one day. However, by 1972, he was tiring of working with polyester resin and the smell. He left it for the same reason he got into it initially, the inherent exoticism of the material which was also its limitation. He had become disenchanted with the whole art making process. Before there was no precedence in working with resin, then he found he wanted to do something that had precedence. 16 In 1972 he built a house and studio in Tuna Canyon overlooking the hills of Malibu and the ocean. The location of the site provided spec­ tacular views of sunsets which he attempted to capture on film and then in a series of pastel drawings. He was captivated by the idea that an artist does not do sunsets, it is an incredible "no - no 11 in the field of contemporary art. Challenging this concept, he vmndered hm'l one could do sunsets and make them work.

15Terbell, Melinda. 11 Los Angeles Review," Arts Magazine, Vol. 45, March 1971, p. 47. 16 Interview with Peter Alexander, May 5, 1978. 44

11 There was a fear of getting involved with the sunset because there was no way that you could deal with them that would be as satisfying as the actual experience ... 17 Over the course of the next five years he did as many as fifty drawings in pastel, the best were luscious and seductive. Thinking in a differ­ ent direction, one of exaggeration and stylization, led him towards more abstract and experimental media. He concluded, if one is going to do sunsets, why not a painting on black velvet with glitter. The critic Hal Glicksman stated in the catalogue of a show of these works at the University of California, Irvine in 1974 that Alexander•s paint­ ings embraced the style of Tijuana velvet painting and further advanced the gaudiness of the prototype.18 Needless to say, his perverse black velvet paintings were not well received. He is still continuing his involvement with pastel drawings of sunsets and is presently working on a series of large abstract, relatively monochromatic acrylic canvases, the surface broken up by additions of metallic paint and brilliant color.

17Glicksman, Hal. Peter Alexander, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, November 1974, p. 1. 18Ibid. 45

Plate 12. PETER ALEXANDER, Cloud Box, layered cast resin, 11 10 ' 1966. Plate 13. Installation view of two large wedges and pyramid, cast resin, 1967-1968.

.j:::. Q') ---

47

Plate 14. PETER ALEXANDER, Untitled (Wedge), cast .resin, 11 11 11 96 X 8 X 8 , 1969. - 48

Plate 15. PETER ALEXANDER, Leaning Bar, cast resin, 11 11 11 105 X 3 X 3 , 1970 . 49

... .,...00 ,..... "C 0'1 :;,­ ~ Ill s:::: S::::•r• .,... Ill (1) Ill~ (1) u~ (l)Vl .,... ~ c.u ...... Ill ::::.--~ (1) (1) 4- 0'> OS:: c:( 3: (l)Vl .,... 0 >....I

------(1) ~ ...... ~ c... 50

Plate 17. PETER ALEXANDER, Six Part Wall Piece, cast resin, 11 89 11 X 68 11 X 12 ,1970. w

51

Plate 18. PETER ALEXANDER, Untitled (Sunset), detail, pastel 11 11 on paper, 30 x 40 , 1974.

------· - 52

Plate 19. PETER ALEXANDER, acrylic painting, 1978. Chapter 5

FREDERICK EVERSLEY

Frederick Eversley was a relative late-comer to the field of art, beginning his first works in photography in 1967. He was one of the few artists, more remarkably one of few black artists, who has been successful financially with the medium and is still working with cast resin. He had the distinction of being the first artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. during the year 1977-78 winning .out to Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Diebenkorn. Initially a successful engineer, at the age of twenty-five, he retired from the aerospace industry to pursue a career in art. Without having any formal art training, within two and one-half years, he held his first one-person show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1970. In 1963, Eversley received a Bachelor of· Science Degree in Elec­ trical Engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Before accepting a job with the aerospace industry in El Segundo, California, he spent four months studying photography at the Institute Allende in Mexico. In 1967 he was involved in an automobile accident. which confined him to crutches for a year. During this period, he retired from engineering, decided to become an artist and spent his time with photography. The kinetic sculptor, Charles Mattox, invited Eversley, in 1968 to share his studio in return for engineering consul- 54 tation on his kinetic works. Influenced by Mattox, Eversley•s initial goals in art were to create kinetic art without using kinetic elements such as mechanical movement or artificial light, sound, or heat prefer­ ring, rather, to utilize natural changes of light in the environment to create kinetic effects.1 Eversley found that the material, cast resin, fulfilled this purpose well as the minimal format allowed one to per­ ceive changes within the sculpture from natural changes in the light, movement in the environment, and from the spectator interacting with the work. His first works combined photography, plastics and electronics; photographic and electronical light elements embedded in cast resin. This photographic sculpture encapsulated the color transparency of resin and was illuminated by miniature one to two inch fluorescent tubes inset in the plastic. Energy 'would be transmitted ultrasonically from across the room from a hidden transmitter. Eversley became capti­ vated by the plastic material and its potential, deciding to work solely within its confines. In his early pieces, Eversley was influ­ enced by the work of Larry Bell and Robert Irwin who employed elements of light, transparency, reflection, pristine surface, and internal spatial volume in their work. 2 Eversley•s first major series of sculpture created in 1968-71 consisted of shapes cut from transparent three-color, three concentric layer cast resin cylinders. The castings were of the same three

1Frederick Eversley. Exhibition catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 30-May 30, 1976, p. 1. 2Ibid. -

55

colors, an outer layer of violet, a middle layer of amber and an inner layer of blue. Variations in the thickness and color saturation of the layers would change the illusion of the cylinder. From these cast cylinders he would cut various shapes, each having its own unique mani­ festation and kinetic quality.3 Eversley has been noted for his use of

11 lollipop 11 colors, no other artist working in resin, with perhaps the exception of Terrence O'Shea,4 has utilized such a brilliant intensity in his resin work. One of these cut cylinders has been compared, in a review of his works shown at the Whitney Sculpture Annual in 1970, to a long, polished fingernail, finding the sleekly geometric approach rather sensua1.5 Here he defines a major premise of his work:

11 An important aesthetic criteria is for the art object to be immediately engaging for the spectator, that it demands instant and close attention and study. I try to achieve this goal by making the object obviously beautiful and seductive, an instant eye catcher, and by creating an instant interaction between the object, the spectator and the surrounding environment ... 6 In 1970 Eversley became involved with a theoretical investigation into the properties of the external parabolic shape which developed into an intense exploration into the nature of the parabola.

3Ibid. 4In addition to using combinations of brilliant color, Terry O'Shea has cast phosphorescent pigments in resin which will glow in the dark. 511 Review of the Whitney Sculpture Annual, .. Art International, Vol. 15, Part 2, February 1971, p. 78. 6santa Barbara Museum of Art catalogue, p. 1. 56

11 Th is exploration impressed one in several different ways; the purity and elegance of the form; its wide spread multi-disciplined applications; its inherent ability to concentrate in both lens and reflector modes, all forms of electromagnetic and acoustic energy to a single focus; (and) the fact that I could find little evidence of artistic study and use of this primary geometric shape. 117 He discovered he could generate a semi-cylindrical, paraboloidal shape naturally by centrifically casting the resin thus utilizing the result­ ing centrifucal and gravitational accelerations to form a concave surface. His next series of sculpture, executed from 1970 to 1974, consisted of transparent, three-color concave discs centrifically cast. After casting, on some the center would be cut out with a bandsaw, others would be cast off center resulting in a lopsided, assymetrical casting. In other words, of this series some of these lenses had a full parabolic surface, others had apertures cut into the center, and still others were tapered such that they were thinner at the top than at the bottom. These discs acted as huge multi-hued fish eyes lenses which concentrated images of the surroundings within their surface. Since the shape of the disc was minimal, the observer was drawn into studying the internal optical phenomenon which would change with any external movement in the environment. The study of the parabola led Eversley to an investigation into concepts of energy sources exerted by the lenses; not only kinetic energy and visible light but of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic energy postulating that his lenses may prove to be valid forms of meta­ physical energy. If the 'lenses acted as perfect concentrators of

7 . Ibid., p. 2. 57 optical, light, or acoustical energy and focused this energy to a sin­ gle point, why not sound, radio, and Xrays? If unknown energy fields exist they would follow the same physical laws as do known energy sources. Therefore his lenses could act as perfect concentrations of 8 . metaphysical energy and make this source more powerful. Consequently, even though appearing as a beautiful object, his art became an expres­ sion of energy concerns, both physical and metaphysical. This led to his next series of discs executed in 1975-76, consist­ ing of monochromatic clear, translucent, and opaque concave parabolical discs cast in black, grey and white resin. Like other artists working in resin he found the idea of using multi-co~ored layers distracting from optical and energetic effects and wound up exploring the potential of one color. These monochromes acted as surface mirrors or reflectors which captured and focused light energy. Eversley found a greater purity in these monochromatic pieces and became aware of paying more attention to the optical effects and less to the beauty and sensuous- ness of the "lollipop 11 colors. His final series of lens sculpture involved transparent black plano-concave parabolic discs. The optical effect of the black lens/ mirror was that when lit solely from the back it appeared as a trans­ parent lens but became an opaque mirror when lit from the front. This series combined the properties of the transparent lens series with that of the opaque lens series. These discs executed in 1976 were forty

8rnterview with Frederick Eversley at the artist's studio, Venice, California, December 3, 1977. 58

inches in diameter and three inches at their widest part.9 Although financially successful with his resin works, Eversley•s ) popularity came at a point when the critics were becoming tired of '-.· reviewing these beautiful, pristine surfaced, objects in resin. Resin

.i: sculpture had bee·n around since 1967 with a highlight in popularity ·· occurring around 1969-70. By 1971 the critics had seen enough discs : ; and enough resin art from Los Angeles. Thomas Garver writes in Artforum of a one-person show Eversley had at the Glenn Gallery in 1970: 11 Frederick Eversley•s recent exhibition of cast resin sculpture at the Jack Glenn Gallery emodies for me most of the vices of highclass Los Angeles plastic light art .... Eversley•s works are pretty because they are elegant in shape, seductive in color and obviously complex of manufacture. One admires them rather as one admires Faberge Easter eggs or crystal flowers. They look as though they took laborious hours to make up and polish, and certainly they make perfect coffee table con- versation pieces as well as being perfect coffee table sizes. 111 0 Simultaneous with the Glenn Gallery show, in Corona Del Mar, California Eversley had a one-person show at the O.K. Harris Gallery in New York. As well as being represented by a piece in the 1970 Whitney Sculp­ ture Annual, he enjoyed· a solo show at the Hundred Acres Gallery in New York. Gerrit Henry reviewed these two shows in Art International:

9santa Barbara Museum of Art catalogue, p. 4.

10Garver, Thomas H. 11 Frederick John Eversley at the Glenn Gallery, .. Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 2, April 1971, p. 87. 59

11 I liked these works for their sincere elegance, and for the way in which the texture of their coloring and the play of shadow and light created by their concave shaping seemed to bring their deep-dish insides to the surface .•.• ; the very centers of some of the discs had been cut out, creating a little rough-edged peep-hole which pleased ..• until the viewer noticed that another group of amber-plastic works was to be seen on the other side of the gallery, these cast in shapes that looked roughly (or smoothly) like the long, polished fingernail of a woman, or a red lipstick emerging squarely from its tubular casing. Suddenly the whole show became another matter of the men against the women, phallic symbols in this case being cast, singularly enough, in some cosmetically heightened form; this is, perhaps, an unfair or loaded reading of the show but certain sculptural shapes tend to dictate certain psychological responses. 11 11 Possibly one of Eversley•s weakness in popularity stemmed from his tendency to exhibit at his one-person shows, too much of the same thing.12 His Santa Barbara show consisted of approximately forty-four objects, nineteen of them were discs and the remaining twenty-five cut cylinders, primarily three color, three layer.

Sin~e 1977, Eversley has been creating his discs only on commission. He was invited as artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian for the year 1977-78 where he continued his investigations into fields of energy. While there, he was commissioned to complete three large sculptures: a transparent acrylic solar-activated fountain for the lobby of the Dallas Hyatt-Regency Hotel; a kinetic, stainless steel windmill sculpture for the Miami Airport; and a laser beam sculpture

11Henry, Gerrit. 11 Whitney Sculpture Annual, .. Art International, Vol. 15, Part 1, April 1971, p. 78. 12opinion expressed by Robert Bassler during interview, November 8, 1977, and DeWain Valentine on December 11, 1978. 60 for the Detroit General Hospital employing thirty-eight laser beams to create a series of straight lines which add up to a curved, parabolic surface. 13 He has been very successful as an artist and his resin pieces can be seen in numerous collections of contemporary art around the country.

13 Interview with Frederick Eversley, December 3, 1977.

-- - ~~--·------~ ~----~---- 61

Plate 20. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three-color, three layer 11 11 11 CUt cast resin cylinder, 8 X 12 X 8 , 1969.

------_...... ::,.. _...... 62

Plate 21. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three color, three layer 11 11 11 cut cast resin cylinder, 8 x 5 x 20 , 1969. 63

Plate 22. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, three color, three layer cast resin disc with hole, 20" x 3", 1973. 64

Plate 23. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, opaque black cast resin 11 11 disc with hole, 20 x 4 , 1974. ?

65

'·

.".., ·, -...

Plate 24. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, transparent black cast 11 11 resin disc, 20 x 6 , 1976. 66

Plate 25. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, blue transparent and grey opaque cast resin discs. l Plate 26. View of Frederick Eversley•s studio, seven cast resin discs on pedestals.

0'\ "'-J I I Plate 27. FREDERICK EVERSLEY, Untitled, blue opaque and pink transparent cast resin discs. t

0"1 co Chapter 6

HELEN PASHGIAN

Another Los Angeles artist working with cast resin is Helen Pashgian. Originally a painter, she worked with resin applying it to sculpture and now is employing it in painting. She received her B.A. in 1956 from Pomona College in Claremont majoring in Twentieth Century art history. Continuing graduate studies in art history and literature at Columbia University from 1956-57, she received her M.A. in Fine Arts from Boston University in 1958 with a major in art history. During her . schooling, she took studio classes in painting, at the time learning the prevailing Abstract Expressionist style with its heavy, opaque, impasto technique. 1 Dissatisfied with her classes because of their restrictions and limitations imposed by the instructor's personal preferences, she acquired a studio for two years in Boston but ended up destroying all these paintings. In 19P3 she returned to California very disillusioned and frustrated with painting, adopted an isolated life style in Laguna Beach and spent long hours getting in touch with nature and California light.

1wortz, Melinda. Helen Pashgian, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, December 5-27, 1975.

69 70

11 The transparent, layered paintings she would soon produce actually grew out of her profound response to the California light, which did not exist in the East. In touch with nature again, she rediscovered a deep preoccupation with light on and under the surface of liquid, where its brilliance is somewhat dissipated, but is still able to be transmitted through water. Other experiences of light which she felt profoundly include the quality of direct sunlight as it passes through translucent objects in nature, such as leaves, and how in the process of passing through objects the light reveals inherent patternings otherwise unnoticed ... 2 She became deeply influenced by the works of Larry Bell and Robert Irwin who were directing investigations into the perceptual nature of light, transparency, reflection, space, color, and reduction to funda- mental formal elements. These two artists not only heavily influenced Southern California artists who created work in response to problems of light and space but initiated a whole new concept of dealing with art, that is, inspiration from the direct observation of nature rather than from theory or other artists opinions. Continuing to paint and attempting to capture the illusion of light beneath a surface of transparent liquid, Pashgian exhibited from 1964-1967 extremely thin-layered oil paintings. Yet she had still not found a way of creating the image she desired. She became involved with cast resin by accident. Having known of her interest in transparency and depth, someone suggested she try this medium. Becoming facinated by the small objects cast, she placed them in plexiglass boxes; the small spheres could be viewed through a peep­ hole. Next she cast a series of egg shapes which had an acrylic rod embedded in the center extending through both ends. Then followed a 71

series of spheres which were less than twelve inches, multi-colored with the majority containing smaller spheres and cylinders cast inside the larger spheres. She had an enormous failure rate from these early {castings because cracking would occur where the surface of the internal { object came in contact during casting with the larger object cast ~ i around the smaller one. In 1971, along with Robert Bassler, Dave Elder

~and Peter Alexander she worked in conjunction with the scientists in

-~the laboratories at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Pashgian took her questions concerning the problem of cracking to the chemical engineers and they informed her that what she was trying to do could not be done. She then went to Jack Brogan, a cabinet maker who turned to helping artists make art, and he supplied the technical advice she needed. 3 However through trial and error and by varying the factors involved such as temperature, ratio of catalyst used and types of mold, she was able to successfully cast her embedded spheres and then gave a seminar to the chemists on her observations. Pashgian had found that with resin she was able to capture light within her objects as well as on the surface. Her earlier pieces can be compared to the cast objects of Terry O'Shea; both artists at this time worked with tiny, jewel-like objects as did Peter Alexander and Roland Reiss.

311 Brogan•s role in the development of the Los Angeles aesthetic during this period is enormously underrated. He has served as techni­ cal advisor and innovator for nearly every Los Angeles, and many New York artists interested in developing new processes--Alexander, Asher, Bell, Benglis, Davis, L. Dill, Irwin, Mallory--to name a few ... Ibid. 72

Along with other cast resin sculptors, in 1971 Pashgian turned to the pure, minimalist form of the disc and was able to apply her own personal statement to the shape. This statement was made more from the standpoint of a painter which she once was rather than as a sculptor. By using multiple pourings of pale transparent color, she achieved subtle, soft color suspended in space. Installed in Caltech•s Baxter Gallery in June of 1971, her discs presented a two-dimensional pre­ occupation with color as seen from a frontal point of view. One disc was composed of green, orange and blue concentric rings; another went from a clear outer edge to a pale orange, then blue, then orange glowing center.4 Whereas the discs of the others were fairly thick her discs were very, very thin at the top and sides, growing to three­ quarters of an inch at the bottom. The center of the disc was translu­ cent dissolving into transparancy towards the edge due to the fact that the center was thicker and there were more layers of color. Unlike Eversley•s and Valentine•s, her three foot discs were not free­ standing and necessitated being embedded in a base. She placed them approximately two feet from the wall and when lit properly from behind, the edges would tend to disappear and the piece would appear to float in space. Natalie Edgar reviewed these discs seen at the Kornblee Gallery in the April, 1972 issue of Art News:

4Wilson, William. 11 Caltech Gallery Inaugurated, .. Los Angeles Times, Part IV, June 7, 1971, p. 14. 73

11 Helen Pashgian shows objects with the esthetics of disappearance. She cast translucent polyester into the shape of huge convex lenses and then dematerializes them with back lighting. A tinge of blue cornea can be detected, then almost fades. Her works study the act of disappearing not suddenly or shockingly, but quietly, by becoming less perceptible and being remembered ... 5

Growing tired of the mechanical complexities involved in properly lighting and installing these discs for an illusionistic effect and having succeeded in dissolving the edge, she abandoned the medium; it no longer interested her.6 Helen Pashgian had been interested in light effects and spatial illusion and she, like others who tired of the laborious mechanics of casting and finishing large quantities of resin, turned her attentions to other forms .of expression. She felt she wanted more images in her work and therefore returned to painting. Yet acrylics or oils could not supply the delicacy and light reflection that resin had done, so she developed a manner of expression through painting in layers of resin. Painting utilizing the material of resin was not a new technique originated by Pashgian. The first successful well known artist to work with resin painting on the West Coast was Ron Davis. In Contemporary Artists Davis explains his technique for creating the geometrical illusionistic works.

5Edgar, Natalie. 11 Reviews and Previews, .. Art News, Vol. 71, April 1972, p. 57.

6wortz, Melinda. 74

11 In 1966 I began to substitute polyester resin plus pigments and dyes for traditional painting media. Fiberglass cloth and mat replaces canvas as reinforcement and support for the colored resin (paint). These plastic paintings were painted with a brush, face down, on a flat waxed Formica mold ....The rapid chemical heat-curing properties of resin (about thirty minutes) allowed me to apply layer behind layer of colored resin until the painting was completed. Layers of fiberglass impregnated with resin were then laminated to the back of the painting, giving it a support, and a wood stretcher bar the shape of the image was attached to the painting. 7 The completed painting was peeled from the waxed mold and polished. ..•. It was then that I viewed the painting for the first time. 11 8 Ron Cooper had been exhibiting fiberglass and resin paintings as early as 1967. On a waxed glass sheet which served as a mold he sprayed as much as thirty layers of tinted polyester resin, then lami­ nated onto the resin a layer of fiberglass cloth, and finally sprayed on another thirty layers, the total thickness no more than one quarter df an inch. Cooper worked with a minimum of color variation creating an opalescent effect on a monochromatic surface combined with an elimi­ nation of form. In the seven and one-half foot paintings the light passing through the transparency would cause the color to appear as if suspended in space.9 In 1970 Ed Moses executed a series of large unstretched canvases with an uneven covering of clear resin which formed an informal frame

7Later the wood stretcher bars were eliminated and the painting was attached directly to the wall with Velcrotape. 8Naylor, Colin and P-Orridge, Gene.sis. Contemporary Artists, St. James Press: London, 1977, p. 224-225.

9spear, Athena. 11 Reflections on Close, Cooper and Jenney: 'Three Young Americans• at Oberlin, 11 Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, May 1970, p. 46. 75 for the canvas. On the canvas were thin ruled lines, the resin caused these lines to smudge. 10 Terry O'Shea, another artist who has been working with cast resin since 1964, was concurrently exhibiting resin paintings along a similar vein to Helen Pashgian. However, this was where all similarity ended. At the Cirrus Gallery in December, 1977, he exhibited about thirty panels of brilliantly colored, minute, free-floating, irregular-shaped objects with indefinite lines immersed in black resin. Added to this was the theatrical bonus that these color inlays were phosphorescent and in a dark room, they illuminated while the black background dis­ appeared. However, like Pashgian, he took advantage of the liquid property of resin and used it to subtly melt the edges of his shapes, causing them to lyrically move in and out of the surface. 11 At the University of California, Irvine Fine Arts Gallery in December•1975, Pashgian first exhibited her resin paintings. Her indi­ vidual process for creating a painting varied from her predecessors; each painting necessitated fifty steps and required an enormous amount of time. In her triptych of 1975 she explored the intensities of light as a function of color and movement by presenting a sequence of a red ribbon enclosed by and connected to a larger green ribbon expanding to where the red shape overlapped the green one. 12 She would form each

10winer, Helene. "How Los Angeles Looks Today," Studio, Vol. 182, No. 937, October 1971, p. 127. 11Muchnic, Suzanne. "Art Review," Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1977, Part IV, p. 17. 12wortz, Melinda. 76 panel on a sheet of acrylic layering resin on each side of the acrylic to avoid warpage. Taking a clear precast ribbon shape (formed on a recessed bed of polyurethane foam) and laminating it onto the acrylic, she poured an intensely-hued red resin over the whole piece. As a liquid will seek its own level, the ~olored resin ran away from the high points and the color became denser at the low points; the work was now red with a clear outline of the ribbon form. Turning over the painting, Pashgian repeated the process using a smaller ribbon on the reverse side, and poured over it a pale green resin. The effect was that the larger ribbon, which was clear and slightly red, now became green and the small greenish ribbon was now red with the areas that overlapped appearing white. To finish the panel, she sprayed white opaque resin on the back and attached back braces across the top and bottom so the painting would lie flat against the wall. A matte or satin finish was sprayed on the surface to cut down light reflections and thereby removing herself from the shiny, wet look of resin, a look she associated with the style of the Sixties.13

11 An amazing characteristic of these resin paintings cast in six or seven layers, is their softness, even sensuality of surface which is diametrically opposed to the slick, shiny, hard and transparent qualities of surface which we custom­ arily associate with resin. Pashgian has in fact succeeded in creating an anonymous surface, for the works are not recognized by most people as resin. Rather they are seen as media as diverse as x-rays and airbrush paintings. 111 4

13 Process described in generous detail in an interview with the artist, December 9, 1977. 14wortz, Melinda. 77

The look her paintings achieved were so unique that William Wilson, in a review of her work at the University of California, Irvine Art Gallery, suggested that they were painted on canvas, oblivious to the fact that this look could be achieved with resin. 11 Six recent canvases look like another case of traditional '60's art-tech vanguardism. She (Pashgian) paints light forms that could be renderings of plastic sculpture against dark grounds ...• The pictures are nicely painted and have a sense of trompe l'oeil, as if a 16th centu- ry artist magically spent a bit of time in the 1960's ... 15 Helen Pashgian left cast resin sculpture primarily because of the long hours required to sand and finish a cast piece. In her resin painting she no longer needs to sand the work yet still spends a tremendous amount of time and effort to form one of her paintings. The time is well spent as her paintings are quite unique in the art world, ·technically and ~esthetically. Pashgian achieves a visually exciting element of depth and luminosity through her explorations into the nature of light, color, and spatial illusion.

15wi 1son, William. 11 Irvine Exhibits Lodato, Pashgi an, .. Los Angeles Times, Part IV, December 22, 19.75, p. 7. 78

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(1) .f-) n::s .­ a.. 79

Plate 29. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, white opaque plexiglass box, cast resin sphere, 811 square, 1968.

Plate 30. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, cast resin and acrylic sphere, 1969. 80

Plate 31. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, cast resin and acrylic sphere, 1969.

/

Plate 32. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled, clear cast resin sphere, 1970.

------81

Plate 33. HELEN PASHGIAN, Untitled Triptych (detail), left painting of triptych, cast resin, 11 11 36 X 72 , 1975 . 82

.,.... Vl s...QJ ~ 0 0. QJ

"'C ,.....QJ .+J,.... +J s:: :::> .. co z..-... c:x:: 0'\ ...... -I (.!J :::I: V): c:x::o ~M zx l.J.J -I = l.J.J""" :::I:N Chapter 7

ROBERT BASSLER

Robert Bassler is presently an instructor of sculpture at California State University, Northridge. Bassler's education included a brief period at Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles from 1952 to 1953 and then, wishing to add a liberal arts education to his artistic interests, moved to New York to receive a B.A. in sculpture from Bard College in 1957. His mentor and teacher at Bard was the late Harvey Fite who instructed in traditional stone and wood while concurrently constructing his major environmental work, "Opus 40," a monumental stone garden meandering over 612 acres of woods on which he displayed his abstract-figurative sculpture. From 1957 to 1959, Bassler worked towards a M.F.A. in figurative and portrative sculpture at the Univer­ sity of Southern California with a brief period spent in the Army Reserves painting Abstract Expressionist landscape murals. At the University of Southern California he met the kinetic sculptor, George Baker, also a student there, and they shared a studio together after graduation. Bassler became involved with cast resin in 1965, led into the medium by a search for new materials to extend his investigation of an on going series.

83 84

Prior to his work with resin, Bassler had been working, in the early Sixties, almost exclusively with wood construction and welded metal .1 Searching for a variety of media to further develop his 11 Anatome 11 series led him to utilize cast polyester resin. "I titled this series •Anatomes• since their forms are expressive of abstract anatomical structures that relate to nothing in a specific biological sense, but rather a more universal kind of biological reality .... They were abstractions, biomorphic forms that came from the subconscious, that generally required a 2 kind of reference of framework within which to exist. 11 Some of the pieces in the series contained heavy steel armatures and Bassler wished to retain their linearity by covering them with a trans-

parent, biomorphic structure. He felt an 11 Anatome 11 was a life fonn in a containment and one should be able to perceive the inner armature. In 1964 the casting resin available at that time was formulated for a maximum of two inch thick castings. When he cast the resin about the armature severe cracking resulted. After modifying the forms in 1965 he was able to successfully cast a piece although it remained quite small, Anatome Variation VI which was eighteen inches high. These experiments with a transparent sculptural material led Bassler away from a relatively conventional sculptural attitude such as casting with bronze or with wood into a new concept of utilizing light and . 3 transparency as a sculptural medium.

1Bassler, Robert C. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture, .. Proceedings of the Eighth National/International Sculpture Conference, April 24-26, 1974, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1976, p. 35. 2Ibid;, p. 35-36. 3Ibid., p. 35. 85

In an attempt to increase the size and thickness of his resin pieces, Bassler worked with panels which could be assembled into larger struc­ tures, giving the illusion of a dense 25" cube, the result was Anatome Enclosure I of 1968. Some of these panels he would vacuum-metalize or mirrorize the back side to reflect light and color back through the piece in a manner similar to what Larry Bell had been doing with his glass cubes. These pieces were contained in an aluminum frame with undulations occuring either on the outer surface in the earliest works, or, the inner surface of the resin such that prismatic refractions of light would take place.4 In an attempt to simplify these structures to take advantage of the prismatic properties led Bassler to an extension of the 11 Anatome" series, entitled "Variations 11 and 11 Enclosures."

11 •••• As I became aware of the qualities of refraction and reflection inherent in the transparent material, I became in­ creasingly interested in the behavior of light passing through it. Consequently, the biomorphic forms were simplified to positive and negative curvatures resembling optical lenses." 5 Around 1969, PPG Chemical Company came out with their first mass cast resin and Bassler proceeded to cast pieces from one to two feet thick. He abandoned the frame and concentrated strictly on the pris­ matic qualities which became apparent when light hit the smooth­ surfaced, undulating forms from specific angles. He cast Split Enclosure and Double Enclosure in 1970 which were two piece prismatics..

4Ibid., p. 37.

5sassler, Robert C. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture," Leon&rdo, Vol. 5, 1972, p. 194. 86

In 1969 he held a solo exhibition at the Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles showing this new, optical series. From 1969 to 1971 Bassler was invited to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena as an artist in residence along with David Elder, Peter Alexander and Helen Pashgian. These artists worked speci­ fically with polyester resin and held a group exhibition at the Baxter Gallery of work completed during their residency. Cal Tech operated a large artist in residence program but these four were the only artists utilizing polyester resin systems. Peter Alexander came late to the program and he used the facilities to advance his work. He had had a show of his leaning bars at the Nicolas Wilqer Gallery and in the heat they had warped slightly necessitating the pieces he had sold to be recast. Alexander hired an assistant to recast the bars at the labora- tories. Helen Pashgian and Robert Bassler shared the .same casting studio at Cal Tech and thereby shared the information they acquired. However, Pashgian had another work area for forming and finishing where she completed her discs while Bassler returned to his own studio to finish his prismatic columns. Dave Elder became involved at Cal Tech teaching an extension sculpture course and by association, became an artist in residence. Elder worked on a series of landscape specimens with beautiful undulations occuring within the resin mass. 6 These four artists were given to use as a studio a climatic-controlled 1 aboratory which had been converted from a biological testing facility that had functioned as a greenhouse, where plants could be subjected to

6Interview with Robert Bassler at California State University, Northridge, November 8, 1977. 87 climatic simulations ranging from arctic to subtropic. This system allowed totally constant environmental control. Temperature could be maintained at 70-75° and humidity kept at a constant fifty percent.7 By controlling these constants, some of the problems were eliminated which could occur resulting in bad castings. However, all the artists felt that this time spent at Cal Tech was not as valuable as they had ori gina 11 y hoped. Tne chemists and engineers with which they worked were involved in the theoretical usage of resin and could discuss molecular analy.sis but they were rarely able to offer much practical advice. The artists hoped to establish procedures and formulas for casting large scale objects without cracking, fogging and discolora­ tion.8 They purchased various brands and experimented with combina­ tions of resins, varying the catalyst ratio, and exploring different types of molds. They tried to work with the chemical companies that produced casting resin to attain information relative to resin formu- lation, PPG, Sylmar and Reichold primarily, but the competition industries were not cooperative in divulging infonmation.9 Perhaps the major reason DeWain Valentine was able to develop a mass cast resin was because of the help of Norm Hastings of Hastings Plastics who worked in collaboration with Valentine and now produces a casting

7Proceedings of the Eighth National Conference, p. 36. 8Leonardo, p. 194 9Interview with Robert Bassler, November 8, 1977. 88 resin called Valentine Maskast Resin No. 1300-17. 10 While at Cal Tech, Bassler became concerned with the aesthetics and perceptions involved in prismatic columns, these columns he termed

11 lenticular11 for their lens-like qualities. By grinding into a rough mass of cured resin, he was able to shape various concave or convex curves each of which diffused the light in a unique manner. A review of these 11 Lenticul ar Columns 11 exhibited at Cal Tech •s Baxter Gallery in 1971 states: 11 0f all the sculpture on exhibit, Robert Bassl er• s duskily transparent megalithic forms are the most demanding three dimensional. The spectator is almost hypnotically compelled to keep circling these quiet, stela-shaped sculptures as each slight change in point of view imbues the static form with changing motion and color. 1111

Having cast a series of 11 Lenticular Columns .. and aware that Europeans had seen little transparent resin, Bassler decided the time was right• for a European tour to arrange exhibitions for his work. In London, by making appointments and going from gallery to gallery, he was able to arrange a group exhibit at the Redfern Gallery. In Berlin,

10 In the introduction to a supply catalogue of DeWain Valentine Mass Casting Resin, 1970, p. 10, Norm Hastings writes: 11 His (Valentine•s) recognition of the potential of liquid plastics as an art medium brought him immediately into contact with Hastings Plastics Company ••.• Although Valentine had successfully used most of the available conventional resin systems in his work, he'was the first to appreciate the unique possibilities of the clear mass casting polyester when Hastings Plastics first introduced it in 1966 ••.• Now that he has worked out most of the product and use problems, DeWain Valentine, in collaboration with Hastings Plastics Company, is releasing this special resin and techniques to other artists and industry ... 11 canavier, Elena. The Record Ledger, May 27, 1971, p. 20. 89 r , with the aid of George Baker who was an artist in residence there, Bassler held a one-man show at Amerika House, a cultural center which exhibits American artists (Bassler•s show followed on the heels of Larry Rivers). Then followed a solo show in Paris at the Galerie La

Demeure while simultaneously exhibiting 11 Double Concave .. in the

invitational annual, the Salon de Mai, at the Musee d 1 Art Moderne (Man Ray came specifically to see the show12 ). The show then traveled to the American Embassy in London and was included in a group exhibition in the Main Lobby. 13 When Bassler returned to the States at the end of 1972, he found the general sense of experimentation and energetic tension of the Sixties was gone. 14 He sensed that his major commitment to resin was over as it was with many other cast resin sculptors. However, through photographing the spectral changes in his lenticular resin pieces, Bassler had found the visual existence began to take precedence over the sculptural object.15 He experimented with making a 16mm color film titled 11 Variations 11 utilizing these 11 Lenticular Columns .. as tools for creating images in light and color in space. The fifteen minute film was completed just before he left for Europe and shown there with the exhibitions. The film documented a prismatic light phenomena controlled and edited into a cohesive statement of abstract color

12 Interview with Robert Bassler, February 12, 1979. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15Leonardo, p. 194. 90

environments.· Bassler placed various columns by a window, a natural, singular light source, on a slowly rotating turntable and sealed off all other light. Centering on a narrow segment, the camera remained stationary as he filmed the minute changes occurring as the sculpture revolved. This led Bassler into an investigation of light environ­ ments, wishing to find a way of involving a spectator in a sculptural environment that was three-dimensional, one that could be walked into composed of nothing but environmental holographic or prismatic light. "When I returned from the European tour, I had strong doubts , and thought that I was not going to work in· resin anymore. But I got back into it attempting to des.i gn lenses that would project prismatic light and would also work as sculpture. I became involved with these prisma­ tically-edged lenses that I could shoot light through and come up with colored imagery ....They are more like lens experiments that will provide me with color projections.".16 Bassler saw these experjments with the disc shape as involving not a sculptural object but as a tool to create a light environment. He heavily researched the field of optics and found that various shapes will produce different l.ight distortions. In some lenses the edge tapered off such that when light hit the piece it would function as a prism; the center was a double concave shape creating a wide angle lens. Different focal lengths of light produced different color intensity. This attitude was similar to the scientific approach of Fred Eversley. His investigation of the parabola led him to optical experiments with the wide angle lens. However; Eversley was concerned not with a clear sculpture which would distort natural prismatic l.ight, but with opaque

16 Proceedings of the Eighth National Conference, p. 41. 91 sculpture that would mirror images from one angle while creating wide angle effects from another angle. Bassler experimented with casting a large six foot disc that could function more totally as a light collec­ tor but the majority of his lens/discs were eighteen to twenty-four inches in size. He made these lenses until 1973 at which time he stopped producing sculpture to build a new home and studio. When he returned to creating art it was primarily in wood construction with a side line into environmental art where Bassler has continued his involvement with the circle/disc shape. From explora­ tions into the light phenomena plastics produced, many artists in the early Seventies began exploring various areas of environmental art. Bassler submitted a circular environmental proposal derived from Ogalala Indian mythology and international road sign symbolism to the 500-mile Nebraska BiCentennial Sculpture Project in 1976. On the ground was to be constructed an enormous 200 foot circle filled with gravel and broken up by four roads coming in from opposite directions, like a cross within a circle; these roads ended at barricades and encircled an island containing a symbolic tree of life. The Indian concept of a circle is extended to the more universal connotation of the disc shape which represents the containment of a spiritual essence in a pure, unadulterated form. This proposal and others like it, represented the intrusion of technology and industry over the freedom of the Indian•s heritage, represented by their world in the center. The basic configuration of the circle, from a holistic approach, is a symbol of the Indian Medicine Wheel and the essence of life symbol of 92

the Mandala. 17 This concern has been incorporated into his most recent series of works, begun in 1972 and continuing to the present, of photo xerography and constructions of stained and contrasting white painted particle board which are derivative of various international road signs and related imagery. Attracted by their purity of design and their relationship to .the surrounding environment, Bassler is further able to extend the symbolism behind the circle and the cross, the basic elements contained in many such signs. Of all the cast resin artists, Bassler's work has dealt most effectively with the prismatic breakup of spectral light. His pieces have incorporated undulations around the bisymmetrical forms to carry across prismatic effects whereas others have kept their surfaces extremely minimal. As an extension of this added quality of organic, rhythmic form, Robert Bassler's resin work has attained an individual uniqueness by developing to the most logical conclusions the potential of cast polyester resin.

17 Lewis, Louise. Modes/Materials: Six Faculty Artists, Exhibition catalogue California State University, Northridge, February 5-23, 1979. 93

Plate 35. ROBERT BASSLER, Anatome Variation VI, cast resin 11 and brass, 18 , 1967. 94

Plate 36. ROBERT BASSLER, Anatome Enclosure I, cast resin 11 and aluminum, 25 , 1968. 95

Plate 37. ROBERT BASSLER, Total Enclosure III·, cast resin and 11 aluminum, 24 , 1969. 96

Plate 38. ROBERT BASSLER, Split Enclosure, cast resin, 11 20 , 1970. 97

Plate 39. ROBERT BASSLER, Double Concave, cast resin, 25 11 X 36 11 X 24 11 ,1971. Plate 40. Installation view of Robert Bassler exhibition at Amerika Haus, Berlin, March 1972.

"'00 ------~~-~~------~------

99

Plate 41. ROBERT BASSLER, Lenticular Column, cast resin, 11 11 57" X 15 X 19 , 1971. 100

Plate 42. ROBERT BASSLER, Lenticular Disc I, cast resin, 16 11 diameter, 1973. 101

Plate 43. ROBERT BASSLER, White Disc-White X/Barricade, 11 11 11 wood construction, 51 x 55 x 7 , 1977-78.

Plate 44. ROBERT BASSLER, Disc Triptych/Road Show, photo 11 11 enlarged color xerox, 30 x 92 , 1978. Chapter 8

CONCLUSION

Los Angeles in the 196o•s became a fertile ground conducive to a movement for artists working in plastics. This movement might also be seen as the first, original artistic style to come out of Southern California. Previously Los Angeles artists adopted the abstract Expressionist-figurative style prevalent in San Francisco. Up until that time, San Francisco had been thought of as the cultural and artis­ tic center of the West. This is not to say that Los Angeles had no major artists living here before the Sixties. Internationally recog­ nized painters such as Sam Francis, Richard Diebenkorn, John Mclaughlin, Larsen Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, Karl Benjamin and Frederick Hammersley came from Southern California but they adopted a Hard Edge, abstract expressionist or figurative style indigenous to San Francisco or New York. The first moves toward originality were made through sculpture and assemblage, which avoided the restrictions of style-occurring _in paint­ ing and led to a sense of experimentation in the usage of new materi­ als.1 Los Angeles became a nucleus for artists working in untraditional

1coplans, John. 11 Los Angeles: The Scene, .. Art News, Vol. ~4, March 1965, p. 57.

102 103 materials such as plastics, giving birth to, in the early Sixties, a style known as "Fetish Finish," "The Cool School" or the "L.A. Look." Craig Kauffman has been credited with being the first Southern California artist to use plastic in his work, incorporating plexiglass into his painting in 1959. 2 Other artists soon followed, developing a style known for its precise, clean surface finish with a strong emphasis on technologically produced materials and processes. Carol Lindsley defines the "fetish finish" look as 11 an immaculate, glisten­ ing often translucent surface which conveys the look of a refined industrial process ...... 3 Southern California artists showed a propensity towards the use of natural light phenomenon, industrial materials with their "clean" surfaces and mostly a use of plastic with its similar finish as a sculptural medium. It has been suggested by various art critics that there are qualities inherent to Los Angeles that caused this specific style to develop. Many credit the natural Southern California light as affecting artists interested in the optical and prismatic properties of light. Artists such as Larry Bell, Peter Alexander, Ron Cooper, Robert Irwin and DeWain Valentine turned to the use of glass and plastics in an attempt to add this quality of light to their work. By 1967, Los Angeles artists were included in shows from New York to the West Coast; Los Angeles was recognized as a center of interest

2wortz, Melinda. "The •cool School• ," Art News, Vol. 75, No. 6, Summer 1976, p. 142. 3Lindsley, Carol. "Plastics Into Art," Art in America, Vol. 56, June 1968, p. 114. 104

for talented artists working in plastics. By the late Sixties, most major shows across the country showed a work in plastic by a West Coast artist, art magazines were finally referring to a Los Angeles art scene and surveying the art produced in the area. Two artists, Larry Bell and Robert Irwin, were very influential in spreading the popularity of this new look. Their work represented the embodiment of the L.A. Look both in its initial phase and as it devel­ oped. Bell was the youngest and the last of the Ferus stable to become

a success, having his first show in 1962 of simple, 11 Shaped canvas, .. Hard Edge paintings. From there his work underwent several meta­ morphoses symptomatic of the transformations in Los Angeles art in the decade of the Sixties. His paintings developed to paintings on glass where the viewer•s image was reflected in the glass and became an integral visual element. By 1963 he quickly progressed beyond painting and executed a series of simple glass and metal cubes, for a short time with graphic surface composition. Refining these cubes through a number of phases, in 1964 he adapted a process used in the aerospace industry of rhodium-coating the glass to produce elusive, iridescent,

halating, rainbow colors.4 Bell 1 s cubes until 1969 were concerned with the subjectivity of color, light, transparency, reflection and ambiguous space. Robert Irwin was originally an Abstract Expressionist painter in the Ferus group and moved to monochromatic paintings of the early Sixties with narrow, horizontal bars in a close-valued tonal range

4Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse, Praeger Publishers: New York, 1974, p. 125. 105 breaking up the colored surface. He then moved to white paintings with an ephemeral painted haze at the bowed-out centers, to rectangular concave panels of faintly colored dots which, from a distance, pulsated optically.5 In 1968, Irwin's paintings became wall mounted white convex discs, faintly tinted pink and green near the outer edge, with elaborately worked-out, shadow casting complexes of lights. These aluminum discs and subsequent ones on plexiglass with transparent stripes across the ~iddle, represent an evolution from a painting as a single object to that of an environment.6 Bell and Irwin have heavily influenced numerous Southern California artists interested in transparency and light. Of the artists discussed here, all site Irwin and Bell as directly influencing their work. After Peter Alexander saw Bell's glass cubes, he came to the realiza­ tion that imagery and illusion did not have to be a criteria in the boxes he• was casting; he admired the beautiful machine-made quality and the anonymous perfect surface. Bell •s influence allowed Alexander to deal directly with color, transparency, density and scale for their own sake. Bell and Irwin's concepts heavily affected Helen Pashgian at the time she was searching for a new direction in her work. They provided a catalyst by presenting examples of artists working with ideas similar to her own explorations into the nature of light.7 DeWain Valentine's early influences stem from Bell and Irwin's concern with a very tight

5Ibid., p. 131. 6Ibid. 7wortz, Melinda. Helen Pashgian, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, December 1975. 106 surface, a surface that was almost obliterated it was so clean.8 By 1967, working independently of one another, there emerged a small group of well-known artists who chose to work specifically with the material, cast polyester resin. These sculptors, five of whom have been discussed in depth here, included also Terry O'Shea, Doug Edge, Dave Elder and, although also utilizing other materials, Roland Reiss. Other artists who used cast resin in their painting along with Terry O'Shea and Helen Pashgian, were Ron Cooper, Ed Moses and Ron Davis. Besides this group of recognized artists, there were at least a hundred less talented artists and thousands of art students working with the material.9 As no artist had used this material previous to 1965, many artists became intrigued by its qualities not available in other casting materials. Because of the amount of time required to finish a piece, many of these artists had difficulty finding a unique solution to the sculptural treatment of the resin object. When a group of artists work within an extremely confining and limiting medium such as cast resin sculpture, there may appear many similarities and overlaps in their work. This group of five artists has been chosen to illustrate this point as well as to explore the motives an artist has in choosing a specific medium, how the artist ex- pressed himself/herself through that medium, why he/she ceased using it, and what direction he/she then turned to. These sculptors chose this

8von Meier, Kurt. "Interview with DeWain Valentine," Artforum, Vol. 7, No.9, May 1969, p. 57. 9rnterview with Helen Pashgian at the artist's studio, Pasadena, California, December 9, 1977. 107 material because it afforded a quality of transparency, translucency and depth not attainable in any other casting material. Their explora­ tions led them to discover in this material optical, spectral and prismatic properties which they would continue to pursue after they abandoned the medium around 1972. Because of the problems inherent in casting, such as stress build­ up resulting in cracking and the enormous amount of time necessary to bring the hard material up to polish, these artists were limited to the forms they could utilize. Reductive forms such as the sphere, the disc and the wedge were seen again and again. It was not so much a question of an artist borrowing another artist•s format as it was a matter of maintaining an identity when working with a shape very similar to that of another artist. When one was exploring prismatic and optical prop­ erties, one form generally provided the most positive shape for inves­ tigation. In this medium, it was the circle/lens shape as seen in the sculpture of DeWain Valentine, Bob Bassler, Helen Pashgian, Frederick Eversley and somewhat with Dave Elder. All of these artists worked in various other shapes but became captivated by the prismatic potential of cast resin which best became appa~ent in the disc shape. Yet each retained their individuality in this usag~. DeWain Valentine cast his first discs in 1966. Although they remained relatively small and opaque, through them he began to deal with the prismatic breakup of spectral color. His technological break-through in casting resin in 1968 enabled him and others to cast pieces larger than twenty-four inches adding monumentality to his own work by casting discs as large as six feet in diameter and weighing as much as 3500 pounds. He 108

experimented with combinations of concave and convex surfaces and introduced flowing color. Frederick Eversley could possibly be cred­ ited with having borrowed the shape directly from Valentine but added

the use of multiple 11 lollipop 11 colors and incorporated assymetrical centrifugal casting sometimes with a hole in the center. Eversley picked up the use of the lens shape at least a year after Valentine cast his and some of their discs are remarkably similar in size, shape and color. They differ in that Eversley cast his on a centrifuge and Valentine used traditional resin casting molds. Eversley used prima­ rily one shape of disc, flat on one side and concave on the other and explored opaque colors as well. Helen Pashgian cast incredibly thin discs which could not stand freely but required a base on which to embed the edge. She viewed the treatment of the disc more from the standpoint of a painter, subtly suspending thin transparent layers of color in space in a double convex shape, making the edge disappear so that the disc would appear to float. Robert Bassler chose to work with the disc not as a sculptural object but to use the lens as a tool to create three-dimensional light envi­ ronments. He cast various lens shapes exploring the different optical possibilities of each, such as having the edges taper to form a prism while the center was a double concave acting as a wide angle lens. Dave Elder's discs were primarily large horizontal discs which sat on a pedestal or were wall-mounted vertically; they were undulating land­ scapes of waves, creating water patterns in subtle, delicate color. When artists first began casting resin around 1965, many of them cast images and objects inside boxes and spheres. Helen Pashgian and 109

Plate 45. DAVID ELDER, Sky Pool, vertical wall hanging cast resin disc, 14 11 diameter, 1973-74 .

Plate 46. DAVID ELDER, Sky Pool, cast resin disc on pedestal, 36 11 diameter, 1973-74. 110

,I •

Figure 1. Comparison of cross section view of cast resin discs by DeWain Valentine, Fred Eversley, Helen Pashgian, Robert Bassler and David Elder. 111

Terry o•shea were casting rods in spheres by 1968-69, Pashgian allowing the sphere to remain monochromatically transparent, o•shea layering up subtle tones of resin around his rods. This lamination of various colored layers which encircled an embedded shape was utilized by Peter Alexander in his Cloud Box of 1966 (it was virtually impossible to cast ten inch cubes without cracking, so laminating layers of resin on top of one another was one solution). Helen Pashgian also placed cast objects in boxes, only of plexiglass, when she first became acquainted with the material. Roland Reiss has acquired his reputation through casting polyester resin figures and images and placing them inside plexiglass boxes to create scenarios. The first pieces cast by Fred Eversley and Robert Bassler were objects implanted in resin, Eversley embedded photographs and electronic light apparatus in his early struc­ tures. Bassler•s first 11 Anatome 11 series incorporated cast resin which showed the metal armature emanating from within the clear mass. The next series Bassler cast were cube shapes, derived from Bell •s cubes of 1963; each side was cast separately and when assembled, it appeared as if the cube was a dense, transparent resin mass. Another form used simultaneously by Valentine and Alexander was the wedge/pyramid in 1968. It is questionable as to which artist first used the shape and who borrowed it from whom. However, Alexander let the wedge become his own personal statement and was most successful with his six to eight foot 11 doorstop 11 wedges. Their wedges differ in that Alexander desired the top to disappear by making it incredibly thin and Valentine used a truncated shape at the top. 112

Although there were some stylistic overlaps in form, the artists retained their own individuality. Besides his successful thin, slender wedges Alexander leaned triangular bars against the wall and placed thin strips directly on the wall. Valentine cast large slab walls and monumental discs and is presently exploring new architectonic resin forms such as the diamond-shaped column. Helen Pashgian's self­ identity has been attested to in her resin painting and although the method has been used by Terry O'Shea, Ron Davis and Ron Cooper, her treatment remains unique in its imagery and technique of construction. The only one to use some semblance of biomorphic imagery, Robert Bassler cast undulating surfaces which caused more apparent prismatic and spectral effects in his "Enclosures" and "Lenticular Columns." Fred Eversley made his mark through the use of strong color and assymetrical castings. By 1972 practically all the artists had stopped utilizing cast resin for sculptural purposes. It was interesting that all these artists who began utilizing resin at about the same time in 1967, inde­ pendently of one another, all gave it up at the same time by 1972. In talking with various artists it is possible to understand the reasons. Helen Pashgian sees cast resin as a medium largely in vogue during the Sixties. In a way, it was a fad. No one had used it previously and many artists became captivated by the material. A few artists began using it and suddenly it took hold, hundreds of lesser known artists and thousands of students were casting resin objects.10 Also it was

10 Interview with Helen Pashgian, December 9, 1977. 113 associated with the art and technology movement of the Sixties. Artists were using industrial materials in innovative ways working with engineers and industry. Transparent resin was associated with the light and airiness concepts many artists incorporated into their work in the 196Q•s, ~specially in Southern California, James Turrell, Douglas Wheeler, Bruce Nauman, Robert Irwin and Larry Bell, to name a few. However, Pashgian feels that as the Sixties ended so did these developments in art; resin became a dead end medium. It had become overdone, the critics were tired of seeing the same shapes over and over again. The artists themselves were tired of turning out the same forms. She feels that the Seventies saw art going back to the use of more traditional materials; painting had become popular again. She, herself, wanted to get back into painting. Many of the artists were satiated with the technical problems involved in casting the objects. In each casting there was a large chance of failure in that the piece would crack while the resin was curing. Eversley says that all one could do was stand by helplessly while the resin changed chemically.11 Most of the artists experienced about a forty percent failure rate. Resin was a very expensive material to have such a high rate of failure and there was nothing that could be done with them except to use them as landfill or take them to the city dump. Bassler and Elder tried everything to recycle the polyester but could come up with no

11 Interview with Frederick Eversley at the artist•s studio, Venice, California, December 3, 1977. 114 ideas. One could not drill out the cracks and recast into the section because optically the fill will still show. The price of resin prac­ tically tripled in the late Sixties due to the Arab oil crisis and it became rather expensive when there was no way to salvage the failures. Most left the medium in part because of the noxious odor. Resin is a highly toxic chemical that requires working continuously with a filter mask and a good exhaust system. Many people cannot work with the material at all as the fumes cause them to become very ill. Robert Bassler states:

11 I dislike the medium, I really do. I like the results, but I hate working in it. It is just terrible stuff, sticky, smelly, poisonous. Ideally I would prefer to enjoy a process. For a while it was very challenging; it was a whole new adventure ...... 12 Probably one of the most substantial reasons many artists were dissatis­ fied with the medium was the numerous hours required to finish each piece. It could take as much as two to three months of sanding, buffing and polishing to bring a piece up to its proper transparency. It is probable that the critical reviews of plastic shows of the early 1970's helped to contribute to the rapid decline in the popular­ ity of cast resin sculpture. The critics had been reviewing plastic artists for practically a decade and the same works appeared again and again. A New York Critic writes of the Los Angeles art scene in 1971:

12Bassler, Robert C. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture, .. Proceedings of the Eighth National/International Sculpture Conference, April 24-26, 1974, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1976, p. 44. 115

11 ••• The whole California •weltanschauung• bristles us up and makes New Yorkers feel for a moment extraordinarily responsible and even puritanical. From here the California scene looks weak and epicurean. Also, the prospect of hip young drop-out types hanging out in Venice, California making fancy baubles for the rich amuses us. Easy materials, easy designs, why shouldn•t we notice that their attitude toward color is just as facile? .... Fred Eversley•s big, thick untitled disc .•• succe-eds by embracing this attitude for what it is worth. Consequently, all it really is is an enormous costume jewel, but at least it submits whole­ heartedly to loveliness .••• In contrast, DeWain Valentine•s solid-color vertical polyester disc (1970) and Peter Alexander•s eight-foot high polyester toothpick (1969) fail to rise above the level of office lobby decoration ... 13

Another New York review of 1971 of the show 11 A Decade of

California Color 11 satirically comments:

11 ••• the show contains objects, not works. Works are so called because they bear the artist•s intentions into existence. These colored objects (Eversley and Valentine•s discs, McCracken•s shiny boards, Bell •s shiny boxes, and Alexander•s tinted columns) are merely that because -- like the cars and refrigerators whose surfaces they resemble -­ they are intended to hide intention,. to ex·ist simply by occupying a measurable amount of space in a soothing way. 11 14 By 1971 the L.A. Look was being replaced by the multi-directional aesthetics of the Seventies. There were very few artists left working in plastics and specifically cast polyester resin. Southern California•s original stylistic movement made way for more traditional approaches to art although retaining a semblance of past characteristics. The Seventies seemed to have brought with them a return to the status quo, to the use of conventional materials.

1311 Los Angeles Scene--1971, 11 Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 1, January 1971, p. 72. 14 n•A Decade of California Color• at the Pace Gallery, .. Art International, Vol. 15, Part 1, January 1971, p. 28. 116

Craig Kauffman, the father of the plastic movement in the e~rly 196o•s, best sums up the new attitudes Southern California artists were acquiring in the first years of the Seventies: 11 It (a 1970-71 New York stay) marked the end of the line for the plastic pieces. They were sort of coming to an end anyway, but it made me very introspective and critical about what I was up to. It was sort of a decade turning point. All the things I was working with seemed sort of second-hand to me -- all of the lighting and installation involved in the pieces I had been working with. I just wanted to go back into my studio and be a painter. I really consciously wanted to go back to painting ... 15 Very few artists remained who worked with cast resin. By 1972, Peter Alexander, Robert Bassler, DeWain Valentine, and Dave Elder had moved to the more traditional methods of artistic representation such as photography, drawing, painting and sculpting in wood and bronze. Ron Davis went from painting with resin and fiberglass to painting on canvas. 11 For health and aesthetic reasons I discontinued the use of resin and fiberglass in 1972. 1116 Helen Pashgian had turned her attentions from sculpting with cast resin to painting with resin, attempting to transfer the transparency available in casting to a rich, visual depthness and luminosity in her paintings. The only artist to successfully carry on cast resin sculpture was Frederick Eversley. He capitalized on the lens shape already used by various other artists and became quite commercially successful. Eversley has had his readily· affordable, good-looking discs placed in such notable collections as

15Butterfield, Jan. 11 0n Location: Four Interviews, Six Artists, .. Art in America, Vol. 64, Part 2, July-August 1976, p. 82. 16Naylor, Colin and P-Orridge, Genesis. 11 Ron Davis, .. Contemporary Artists, St. James Press: London, 1977, p. 225. 117 f ' the Smithsonian, the Milwaukee Art Center, the Whitney, The National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., M.I.T., and the Newport Harbor Art Museum. Eversley remains a traditionalist amongst the resin sculptors and as such tends to reflect the romantic tendencies of much contemporary art. By remaining with the disc when others had gone on to other art forms and investigating all its visually aesthetic possi­ bilities, he has created objects that collectors like. Henry J. Seldis sums up this attitude: 11 Whatever underlying scientific and philosophical notions the artist is concentrating on now, the physical result of his (Eversley•s) sculptural activity continues to create objects of palpable beauty. This is an aspect that reflects a renewed concern with the idea of beauty--so long rejected--by a good number of young contemporary artists ...... 17 This shift in attitude away from the sculptural object may be seen in the way the collective art scene in Los Angeles was changing in the late Sixties. The L.A. Look persisted until 1968 when the art pre- sented began to accept environmental overtones, especially in the area of sculpture. Two figures were responsible for this growth, James Turrell and Robert Irwin. James Turrell created the breakthrough of the decade in September 1967 by installing at the Pasadena Art Museum 11 paintings 11 of near-rectangular, precise formats of projected sharp white light on the walls and corners of the museum. Turrell had broken away from the need to make material objects and substituted a highly intense, aesthetic experience by increasing the spectator•s

17seldis, Henry J. 11 0ptical Magic That Turns Us Inward, .. Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1976, p. 76. 118 perception of the environment. 18 In 1968 Robert Irwin•s aluminum and plexiglass discs, when lit from four sources, cast a complex of circular shadows on the wall behind, becoming an integral part of the work, tending to dematerialize the painting by blurring or softening the edge and setting up an environmental relationship between the white light of the disc and its shadows. The dominant theme of the early Seventies was movement away from the art object which saw Los Angeles artists beginning an interest in creating or affecting environments, primarily in regards to light and space, while setting up an involvement with the subtle perceptual responses to those situa­ tions. Irwin went on to reduce his art to pure space and light in his series of 11 Volumes 11 by altering architectural interior space by the placement of nylon 11 Scrims, 11 black tape and either natural or artifi­ cial light sources. Along with Irwin, Larry Bell was an original fetish-finish artist whose work with glass cubes helped to shape the direction this new look was to take. When the L.A. Look became less prevalent, Bell discontin- ued his cubes and became involved in creating interior environments, still utilizing industrial materials. In 1968 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Larry Bell first exhibited these eight feet high free-standing

:glass wall environments. This series culminated in 11 The Iceberg and its Shadow, .. a project of monumental proportions comprised of fifty-six planes of glass rising one hundred inches at its highest point, the

18sharp, Wi 11 oughby. 11 New Directions in Southern Ca 1 i forn i a Sculpture, .. Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, Summer 1970, p. 37. 119 huge panes of glass either clear representing the 11 iceberg" or smoky grey, the "iceberg•s shadow." It has been exhibited all over the country from 1975 on in various configurations of its fifty-six parts of four major modules. 19 Presently Bell has been working on a solar fountain trying to get funding by making prints and drawings. Plastics did not fit in with this new direction taken in sculpture as the use of plastics was best suited for creating objects of art. The five artists discussed here utilized plastics when it was popular as a medium, but when the look began to change, they completely divorced themselves from its use with the exception of Fred Eversley who did so much later, and Helen Pashgian who used it in her paintings. However, the cast resin sculptors exercising the perceptual experiences gained from working with transparent materials, began to apply these new attitudes to forms of environmental art. Primarily, their inter­ ests were centered around developments in light and spatial concepts. Robert Bassler became involved in film-making producing the 16mm film, "Variations, 11 by which to create the illusion of light environments by capturing the spectral changes that occurred when natural light hit the resi~ sculpture. In 1972 he began to execute a series of environmental proposals which continued his concerns with the circle shape and the symbolism behind it. Pursuing his interest in natural light phenomena, Peter Alexander spent the next years making pastel studies/drawings of the sunsets he observed from his home overlooking the canyons and is now working in

19Butterfield, Jan. "Larry Bell: Transparent Motif," Art in America, Vol. 66, No. 5, September/October 1978, p. 95-99. 120 traditional modes of painting. In 1975 Alexander installed in the California State University, Long Beach Art Gallery a prism chain suspended outside the, gallery which reflected a beam of light inside the gallery and deflected it as a spectral projection on a waiting wa11. 2° Frederick Eversley continued his explorations of the princi­ ples of metaphysical energy and the parabola by accepting commissions to construct an enormous kinetic windmill for the Miami Airport, a transparent acrylic fountain for the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas, and a thirty by fifty foot square outdoor laser piece for a Hospital in Detroit in which he used thirty-eight lasers generating only straight lines to create a double parabolical surface suspended in space. DeWain Valentine exchanged the medium of polyester resin for acrylic through which he was able to attain a more clearly differentia- ted prismatic spectrum for his acrylic rings which cast prisms onto • the walls and floor. From 1971-74 like Alexander, he became involved in photographing sunsets. At the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1975 he exhibited these forty by fifty inch photographs of a sunset over the ocean which contained a suspended spectra over the horizon line hover- ing in mid-air. In this same show, he constructed a "camera obscura" scrim which projected the outdoor light onto the screen of upside down images in continuous motion. 21 This exploration of natural daylight

20 Nordland, Gerald. "Los Angeles Newsletter," Art International, Vol. 19, No. 10, December 1975, p. 29. 21wortz, Melinda. DeWain Valentine, Documentation of Spectrum Horizon Installation. 121 and sky phenomenon led Valentine to the study of fiber optics. In 1971 he installed in his studio a Catenary Light of one inch acrylic rod which pierced the ceiling bringing light from outside down the length of the rod, illuminating the dark interior. From 1971-74 he executed a series of cantilevered planes in sealed rooms in which one or more large acrylic sheets would pierce a wall to the outside, again bringing outside light into the darkened room illuminating the edges of the acrylic sheet.22 Los Angeles art in the Seventies continued to express a great deal of individuality and diversity due to a lack of identifiable history or tradition and to a sense of physical isolation with art going in direc­ tions as varied as Conceptual/Performance, Video, wall murals and feminist art. The dematerialization of Los Angeles art in the late Sixties and early Seventies has allowed for a change of direction in present art, a renewal of interest in abstract painting and a new awareness of ephemeral concerns in sculpture, often the two forms closely interlinked. Those involved in the original Ferus group who became Fetish­ Finishists have remained active in the contemporary scene. Already discussed were Bell and Irwin who illustrated directions taken in sculpture. The finely finished glamour of L.A. Look objects made it difficult for the new painting to compete with in terms of visual impact. The solution was found in color painting and formalist devices. Ed Moses with his diagonal grids, emphasized paintings•

22 Plagens, Peter. DeWain Valentine. Exhibition catalogue, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, June 28-August 3, 1975. 122 ¢ ' relative non-physicality, its looseness, subtlety and softness, using mixed media along with canvas. 23 In 1969, Moses used an architect's snap line to create parallel, bleeding chalk lines on an unstretched canvas and then overflowed the canvas with resin to. produce the illusion of an irregular frame. His use of resin, after the Look was fading, created an elegant tension between visual and elusive proper­ ties of space, color, light and depth by combining mixed media with traditional painting materials. Craig Kauffman abandoned plastic images in the early Sixties and turned to irregular-shaped paintings constructed of exposed wood suggesting stretcher bars and containing geometric areas of freely painted canvas; sometimes the canvas was absent and the wall acted as part of the painting. Kauffman's work represented a complete withdraw­ al from his previous fetish-finish look, turning to the formal concerns of abstract painting. Billy Al Bengston has remained a Pop-abstract painter with his decorative silhouettes of irises floating over pale and brightly­ colored washes on both stretched and free-hanging surfaces such as standing and hanging screens, luscious banners and even on silk­ screened scarves. Af~er Bengston left the plastics era, he maintained an interest in the luminous effects of a canvas lit with nice, bright colors and applied his efforts towards the decorative arts.

23sunshine Muse. p. 113. 123

Art that creates a strong effect, leaves a message, and imparts a feeling of worthwhile existence is the art that appears to be the most effective today and has attained a timeless dimension. The most successful art today attempts to make a point rather than to exist as a beautiful object, even though both currents are being seen. With respect to cast resin sculpture, it is largely out of favor with its Sixties look of high polish, transparency and minimal objective format. It is questionable whether it will ever come back in popularity as more than another casting medium for art students. DeWain Valentine is challenging that question. He is currently at work after taking a five year sabbatical, on monumental new cast resin forms. In 1978 he showed a six foot diamond-shaped column with a solid greyish center turning to amber and then into clear edges which wanted to disappear, the effect of a beautifully suspended ethereal ·column of smoky color. Now he is adventuring into large scale sculptures that appear as gates under which the viewer will be able to walk and thereby involve himself more directly with the subtle perceptual nuances of the resin. It will be questionable how these new pieces will be accepted; whether they will be seen as a later manifestation of the Sixties aesthetic or as a new development using a Sixties material. The Seventies is seeing a popular acceptance in mixed media sculpture and even more so in painting. Resin is used by various artists nowadays in mixed media terms, yet it is not being solely used as a sculptural material. It is possible that that may become its greatest worth, to supplement the strength of other materials in a particular artwork. BIBLIOGRAPHY

124 125

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Books Morrison, Robert Thornton and Boyd, Robert Neilson. Organic Chemistry, Allyn and Bacon, Inc.: Boston, 1974. Naylor, Colin and P-Orridge, Genesis. 11 Ron Davis, .. Contemporary Artists, St. James Press: London, 1977, pp. 224-225. Newman, Thelma R. Plastics as an Art Form, Chilton Book Company: Philadelphia, 1969. Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse, Praeger Publications: New York, 1974.

11 Polyester Resins, .. Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1968-1969, Vol 45, No. 14A, McGraw-Hill Publications: Philadelphia, pp. 264-265, 1084-1085. 11 Polyesters, 11 Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1969-1970, Vol 46, No. lOA, McGraw-Hill Publications: Philadelphia, pp. 172, 176. Roukes, Nicholas. Sculpture in Plastics, Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, 1978, revised edition.

2. Peri odi ca 1s Armstrong, Lois. 11 Robert Bassler at Molly Barnes Gallery, .. Art News, Vol. 68, November 1969, p. 51. Baker, Elizabeth C. 11 Los Angeles, 1971, 11 Art News, Vol. 70, September 1971, pp. 27-39. Bassler, Robert C. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture: Transparency and Light, 11 Leonardo, Vol. 5, 1972, pp. 193-198. Bassler, Robert C. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture: Transparency and Light, 11 Proceedings of the Eighth National/ International Sculpture Conference, April 24-26, 1974, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1976, pp. 35-47.

Butterfield, Jan. 11 Larry Bell: Transparent Motif, .. Art in America, Vol. 66, No. 5, September/October 1978, pp. 95-99.

Butterfield, Jan. 11 0n Location: Four Interviews, Six Artists (Craig Kauffman), 11 Art in America, Vol. 64, Part 2, July/August 1976' pp. 81-82. 126

Canavier, Elena. 11 The Art Scene (Baxter Art Gallery), 11 The Record­ Ledger, May 27, 1971, p. 20.

Coplans, John. 11 Los Angeles: The Scene, .. Art News, Vol. 64, March 1965, pp. 29, 56-58.

Danieli, Fidel. 11 DeWain Valentine, .. Art International, Vol. 13, No. 9, November 1969, pp. 36-39.

11 Daniel i' Fidel. Some New Los Angeles Artists (Peter Alexander)' II Artforum, Vol. 6, No. 7, March 1968, pp. 45-46.

Edgar, Natalie. 'lReviews and Previews (Helen Pashgian at Kornblee Gallery) , 11 Art News, Vol. 71, April 1972, p. 57.

Frank, Peter. 11 Unslick in L.A., 11 Art in America, Vol. 66, No. 5, September/October 1978, pp. 84-91.

Friedman, Martin. 11 Fourteen Sculptors: The Industrial Edge, 11 Art International, Vol. 14, Part 1, February 1970, pp. 31-40, 5;-:--

Garver, Thomas H. 11 Frederick John Eversley, Glenn Gallery, 11 Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 2, April 1971, p. 87.

Henry, Gerrit. 11 Whitney Sculpture Annual, 11 Art International, Vol. 15, Part 1, February 1971, p. 78.

Kozloff, Max. 11 The Multimillion Dollar Art Boondoggle, 11 Artforum, Vol. 10, Part 1, October 1971, pp. 72-76.

Lindsley, Carol. 11 Plastics Into Art, 11 Art in America, Vol. 56, June 1968, pp. 114-115.

Livingston, Jane. 11 Los Angeles Review ('Plastics: L.A.'), 11 Artforum, Vol. 6, May 1968, pp. 65-66.

Livingston, Jane. 11 Two Generations in Los Angeles, 11 Art in America, Vol. 57, Part 1, January/February 1964, pp. 92-97.

Lubell, Ellen. 11 Helen Pashgian at Kornblee Gallery, 11 Arts Magazine, Vol. 46, April 1972, p. 69.

Masheck, Joseph. '"California Color'--Pace Gallery, 11 Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 1, January 1971, pp. 72-73.

Muchnic, Suzanne. 11 Art Walk (Terry O'Shea at the Cirrus Gallery), .. Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1977, Part IV, p. 17.

Muller, Gregoire. 11 A Plastic Presence, .. Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, November 1969, pp. 36-37. 127

Nordland, Gerald. 11 Los Angeles Newsletter (•A View Through•-• California State University, Long Beach Art Gallery}, 11 Art International, Vol. 19, No. 10, December 1975, pp. 29-32--.-- Plagens, Peter. 11 Five Artists, Ace Gallery, 11 Artforum, Vol. 10, No. 2, October 1971, pp. 86-87.

Plagens, Peter. 11 The Sculpture of Peter Alexander, .. Artforum, Vol. 9, Part 1, October 1970, pp. 48-51. Ratcliff, Carter. 111 A Decade of California Color• at the Pace Gallery, .. Art International, Vol. 15, Part 1, January 1971, pp. 28-29. Seldis, Henry J. 11 0ptical Magic That Turns Us Inward (Frederick Evers ley), 11 Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1976, Calendar Section, pp. 76, 78.

Sharp, Wi 11 oughby. 11 New Directions in Southern Ca 1 i forni a Sculpture, 11 Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, Summer 1970, pp. 35-38.

Spear, Athena. 11 Reflections on Close, Cooper and Jenney: •Three Young Americans• at Oberlin, .. Arts Magazine, Vol. 44, May 1970, p. 46.

Taylor, John Lloyd. 11 DeWain Valentine, 11 Art International, Vol. 17, No. 7, September 1973, pp. 21-24, 48-49, 76. Terbell, Melinda. 11 Los Angeles ( •Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: Four Artists• at UCLA Art Galle.ry), 11 Arts Magazine, Vol. 45, March 1971, pp. 47-48. Von Meier, Kurt. 11 An Interview with DeWain Valentine, 11 Artforum, Vol. 7, No. 9, May 1969, pp. 55-58.

Wasserman, Emily. 11 New York Review (Peter Alexander at the Elkon Gallery}, .. Artforum, Vol. 7, Part 2, May 1969, p. 65. 11 White Wings in the Sunlight, 11 Time, Vol. 89, No. 19, May 12, 1967, pp. 80-83. --

Wilson, William. 11 Caltech Gallery Inaugurated, .. Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1971, Part IV, p. 14. Wilson, William. 11 The Explosion That Never Went Boom, .. Saturday Review, Vol. 50, Part 3, Sept~mber 23, 1967, pp. 54-56. Wilson, William. 11 Irvine Exhibits Lodato, Pashgian, .. Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1975, Part IV, p. 7. Winer, Helene. 11 How Los Angeles Looks Today, .. Studio, Vol. 182, No. 937, October 1971, pp. 127-131. 128

Wertz, Melinda. "The •cool School'," Art News, Vol. 75, No. 6, Summer 1976, pp. 142-144.

3. Exhibition Catalogues DeWain Valentine Mass Casting Resin. Technical brochure published by Hastings Plastics Company, 1970. Frederick Eversley. Exhibition catalogue, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 30-May 30, 1976. Glicksman, Hal. Peter Alexander, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, November 1974. The Last Plastics Show. Exhibition catalogue, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, March 14-April 15, 1972. Plagens, Peter. DeWain Valentine, Exhibition catalogue, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, June 28-August 3, 1975, Frye and Smith: San Diego, 1975. A Plastic Presence. Exhibition catalogue, Milwaukee Art Center, E. F. Schmidt Co.: Milwaukee, November 1969. Smith, David. Artists in Residence:- Alexander, Bassler, Elder, Pashgian, Exhibition catalogue, Baxter Art Gallery, California Institute of Technology, May 21-June 20, 1971. Wight, Frederick S. Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: Four Artists, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Los Angeles, January 11-February 14, 1971. Wertz, Melinda. DeWain Valentine, Documentation of Spectrum Horizon Installation, Long Beach Museum of Art, February 23-September 7, 1975. Wertz, Melinda. Helen Pashgian, Exhibition catalogue, University of California, Irvine, December 5-27, 1975.

4. Personal Interviews David Elder. California State University, Northridge, October 26, 1977. Robert Bassler. California State University, Northridge, November 8, 1977. 129

Frederick Eversley. Artist•s studio, Venice, California, December 3, 1977. Helen Pashgian. Artist•s studio, Pasadena, California, December 9, 1977. DeWain Valentine. Artist•s studio, Venice, California, December 11, 1978. Robert Bassler. California State University, Northridge, February 12, 1979. APPENDIXES

130 131 v '

Appendix A

PROCEDURE FOR CASTING POLYESTER RESIN SCULPTURE

Polyester resin is a versatile material for sculpture as it lends itself readily to casting, laminating, embedding and carving. Possibly its greatest advantage is that resin has a strength and durability equal to wood or stone yet, in its natural cast state is water-white transparent, although not as crystal clear as cast acrylic. Trans­ parency may extend the perceptions of the artist; it goes beyond the surface of the sculpture, producing simultaneous perception at multiple depths within the mass of the transparent object. The inner surface becomes equally as important as the outer. Transparency intensifies visual and perceptual sensations by producing prismatic colors and op­ tical effects through light refraction and diffusion. If the source of light is strong enough, prisms will be projected onto nearby surfaces. Polyester resins in the mid Sixties were relatively inexpensive for use as casting materials compared to epoxies and acrylics, however, due to the rapid rise in the cost of petroleum products, the price of resins increased practically threefold. In relating polyester resin to ' . acrylic, a similarly optical material, polyester resin may be formed without applied heat or pressure, may be catalyzed at room temperature, and does not necessitate the use of an autoclave. 1 Resin may be

1casting acrylic requires maintaining pressure at one-half atmos­ phere which can take place only in a machine formulated to control atmospheric pressure and heat, an autoclave. Bassler, Robert. 11 Lenticu1ar Polyester Resin Sculpture, .. Proceedings of the Eighth National Sculpture Conference, 1976, p. 44. 132 colored with transparent and opaque dyes to attain a wide v.ariety of beaut1ful tints and tones from transparent to translucent to opaque. Resin may take on the appearance of metal by adding bronze, copper and other metallic powders, synthetic marble by adding crushed calcium carbonate or mother of pearl for a pearlescent effect. It is resistant to the effects of most moisture and heat, but may be attacked by ketones such as acetone, chlorinated solvents and strong alkalis.2 Cast resin after it has cured, cannot be redissolved or re- shaped without extensive degradation by extreme heat or chemical attack. It remains a stable sculptural medium with most damage coming from scratching and chipping. Polyester resin will yellow slightly in sunlight unless it is stabilized by the addition of ultraviolet filter powders although it is questionable how long the ultraviolet stabilizer will remain effective. For this reason, resin sculptures should be shown indoors. Fiberglass and other reinforcing materials may be im­ pregnated by liquid resin adding structural strength, reinforcement and reduction of shrinkage, however at the disadvantage of losing trans­ parency. Polyesters may be fire retardant or resistant if purchased with that formulation; some are slow burning to self-extinguishing.3 Polyester resin is a synthetically-prepared plastic which, once formed, cannot be readily altered by applying heat or chemicals.4 In

2Newman, Thelma R. Plastics as an Art Form, Chilton Book Co.: Philadelphia, 1969, p. 35. 3Newman, Thelma R. p. 34. 4For more detailed information on the chemistry of polyester resins, please refer to Appendix B. 133 chemical terms, polyester resins are one-hundred percent reactive solutions of a polyester alkyd resin in a liquid monomer, styrene, which upon polymerization5 or hardening, convert to a solid. To achieve a proper hardening of the liquid resin, it is necessary to add a catalyst, generally a peroxide such as MEKP, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, to the liquid resin. A catalyst is a substance that speeds up or retards a chemical reaction and in this case, it accelerates molecular rearrangements. The type and amount of catalyst used influences the gel time, cure time, and the amount of exothermic heat given off as the resin cures. Polyesters may be cured at ambient temperatures if suitable promoters are added to the resin to effect breakdown of the slowly-decomposing peroxide catalyst. A promotor enables the polymerization to proceed either at lower temperatures or at a greater rate; they serve as triggers starting the chemical reaction. The promotor is added by the manufacturer and is composed of a metallic compound such as cobalt naphthanate. The particular metal used (cobalt, manganese or lead) gives a slight tint to the clear color of the resin; cobalt produces a red to purple tint.6 The batches of resin that each company produces come in a different color and each batch ordered may vary. Fred Eversley states that his white opaque pieces may have a subtle pinkish tinge and yet another casting executed later may have a faint yellow cast even

5Polymerization is the joining together of several units of chemically similar, small molecules by heat, pressure or the addition of a catalyst to form large, long-chain macromolecules. 6Newman, Thelma R. p. 113. 134 though the chemicals were purchased from the same company. 7 Robert Bassler has added a green dye to modify the reddish tint in the resin aiming for a more water-white transparency.8 The procedure for casting polyester resin is time consuming and involves numerous steps from making a mold, preparing the chemicals, actually casting the object and allowing it to set up, to bringing the rough casting up to a finished state. All artists follow basically the same procedures. The environment the artist works in is especially im­ portant as it is essential to maintain all climatic conditions constant and the area to remain absolutely clean.

11 Ideally, a studio with temperature and humidity control and an efficient exhaust system should be utilized. Temperature should be maintained at a constant 70 - 75° F level and relative humidity kept below 50%. At tempera­ tures below 70o F, the resin change becomes more viscous making it difficult to mix adequately to avoid entrapping air bubbles. If the temperature exceeds 750 F when the catalyst is added, the resin may ge1 very rapidly and will be inclined to overheat and crack, unless the cata- lyst is reduced in conformity with the temperature excess ... 9 A too high humidity factor may produce fogging or clouding, a milky appearance in the finished piece, due to the presence of moisture when the resin cures. The room used for casting, as well as being extremely clean, should have a good exhaust system plus an organic vapor filter mask should be worn for protection from toxic fumes given off by the

7Interview with Frederick Eversley at the artist•s studio, Venice, California, December 3, 1977. 8Interview with Robert Bassler at California State College, Northridge, November 8, 1977. ·

9sassler, Robert. 11 Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture, .. Leonardo, Vol. 5, 1972, p. 195. 135

chemicals. The styrene in resin is extremely noxious and breathing the fumes may make one ill, especially over long periods of time. Ron Davis, a Los Angeles painter working for years with resin and fiberglass, did not use adequate protection and gave up working with resin due to a developing lung condition. One should avoid physical contact with the resin and catalyst by wearing rubber gloves, or dis­ posible surgical gloves, any chemical coming in contact with the skin should immediately be washed off with acetone or a resin cleanser. However, once polymerization has taken place, the resin is no longer toxic and the material itself does not give off an odor. A mask should still be employed when sanding and buffing so no loose micro­ scopic particles will be inhaled. 10 The mold into which the liquid resin is poured may be constructed out of a broad assortment of materials. What is important is that the mold will physically hold the weight of the liquid resin and will not bulge, sag or break. Peter Alexander cast his early cubes and wedges in one-quarter inch tempered glass molds sealed with silicone. The wedge shape was achieved by tilting the table before the resin was poured into a long, slender trough to form a triangular shape. At a crucial point after the resin had gelled, Alexander had to cut the silicone and pull off the glass sheets as the stress would cause the resin to crack. To make his thin strips which hung on the wall, Alexander built a wood table with long trenches laid side by side. He · placed mylar on top of the wood, poured the resin, and pee 1ed off the

10 Ibid., p. 196. 136 mylar leaving a smooth eggshell surface requiring no further finishing. 11 In his first resin castings Robert Bassler used clay to make his original sculpture and made a plaster mold off the clay positive, an inexpensive way of making a mold especially for a compound contoured sculpture as he was constructing. When using most molds except silicone, glass or mylar, attention must be given to preparing the surface of the mold to permit release of the castin-g. For irregular surfaces a mold release agent such as liquid polyvinyl alcohol, PVA, is sprayed or brushed on and then hard paste wax rubbed on in several applications. For plaster molds it is necessary to seal the absorbent plaster with several coats of shellac before administering mold release agents. Bassler later experimented with silicone rubber molds like Silastic RTV of Dow Corning which has the advantage of requiring no surface preparation, (in other words, a parting agent need not be used• which will stick to the casting necessitating removal by sanding) and the mold is reusable. This material is advantageous for castings in which an exact duplication of an irregular surface is necessary but it is very expensive and therefore feasible only for small-scale work. Bassler had hoped to be able to get a smooth, polished surface by using a silicone mold and cut down on buffing and sanding time. 12 However, resin shrinks five to seven percent and if there occurs any resistance

11 Interview with Peter Alexander at the artist's studio, Tuna Canyon, California, May 5, 1978. 12sassler, Robert. Proceedings of the Eighth National Sculpture Conference, p. 37. 137

to this movement, such as adhering to the mold, several problems may occur. The casting may crack, it may pick up deep mark-off lines where it leaves the mold at different times, or the release agent may wrinkle and cause deep blemishes on the casting. DeWain Valentine discusses this problem:

11 The remedy to all of the shrinkage problems is tied primarily with the selection and preparation of the mold plus knowledge and control of the following phenomena. In room temperature cured polyester systems shrinkage starts from the center of the mass (hot spot) and spreads slowly toward the colder areas. This shrinkage causes the breaking of the vacuum seal between the casting and the mold surface. The coldest area of the mold will be the last to release the casting. This movement can cause a mylar cover on a mold surface to move, pile up, and cause wrinkles which mark the yet soft casting surface. It will also cause a 'shrinkmark' from a mold surface which has no film cover such as glass.n13 Bassler then turned to fiberglass molds taken from a plaster positive which are strong, light and reusable. He found it easier to make primitive, modular, molded masses and grind them down to the desired shapes. DeWain Valentine developed a method of casting large scale pieces by creating a new combination of casting resin and flexible resin, thereby opening up the potential for casting large-scale works by other artists. Before only castings up to twenty-four inches in height were possible without cracks. He noticed that a lot of the problem occured in the mold, specifically when to release the sides of the mold after the resin gels so the resin can shrink. He was able to cast slab walls eight by twelve feet with a thickness of only a couple of inches.

13spectacular DeWain Valentine Mass Casting Resin. Hastings Plastics Company technical brochure, 1970, p. 13. 138

Presently he is using concave steel molds, Teflon coated for easy release. His earlier slabs were cast vertically out of particle board and with two by four inch wood supports, mylar on the inside and PVA as release agent. The four sides of the mold peeled away, the cast sat on a base and was then able to be moved with a fork lift. His circle shapes were also cast vertically. The mold was concave on both sides, two dome shapes fit onto a spacer ring. The two sides came out and the spacer ring was lifted off the sides of the cast.14 Frederick Eversley also cast discs and used circular stainless steel and sometimes aluminum molds which he then placed on a centrifuge. Working with transparent materials requires meticulous attention to the cleanliness of the environment sa that no foreign particles will enter the casting. Immediately prior to casting, the mold should be cleaned carefully with a lintless cloth. The resin charge should be· filtered at least once; a 320 mesh stainless steel cloth makes a very effective as well as reusable filter. The resin comes in fifty-five gallon drums and may be filtered straight from the drum into another container in which mixing of additional chemicals takes place. At this point a coloring agent is added to the resin along with any other chemicals, fillers or embedments. The color is premixed by using a painter's mixer, or a folding propeller type mixing paddle is available which can be inserted through the drum hole if mixing is done in the drum. It is important that the coloring agent is completely and

14Interview with DeWain Valentine at the artist's studio, Venice, California, December 11, 1978. 139 totally diffused throughout the resin; mixing may require as much as an hour for total dispersal .15 The catalyst is then added to the filtered charge. The catalyst must be measured accurately and then mixed into the resin charge for a minimum of fifteen minutes. For castings over twelve inches in thick­ ness, the proportion of catalyst in the resin is about one-half percent or about one drop per liquid ounce or one and one-half tablespoons per gallon (ten to fifteen grams). It is advisable to note the manu­ facturer•s recommendations for each particular brand and then modify the amount of catalyst depending on the thickness of the casting. For thick castings, reduce the catalyst because of the larger mass neces­ sary to be cured. Recommended proportions would result in too much heat being built up causing large cracks due to excessive shrinkage. Conversely, for thin castings, increase the catalyst concentration to avoid a tacky surface.16 After the resin has been poured into the mold it must cure for eight to twelve hours or longer, depending upon the size of the object. The curing process involves several stages. The first is the gradual thickening or gelling of the catalyzed resin in which the temperature of the resin begins to rise toward a peak temperature or 11 exotherm 11 of 300 - 350° F. It is at this point that any problems within the casting will begin to be visually.apparent. A buildup in the concentration of catalyst in any area will cause a greater amount of heat to release than in the surrounding matter, which may cause internal stresses and

15sassler, Robert. Leonardo, p. 196. 16 Newman, Thelma R. p. 42. 140

fissures. At peak temperatures, the casting resembles hard rubber in consistency and takes at least half a day to properly harden. The mold is then pulled away from the resin and the piece at this point has a mflky, translucent, irregular surface. Finishing the surface requires tedious hours of sanding, buffing and polishing. To obtain a highly polished surface which best illus­ trates the transparent properties of the resin sculpture, it is neces­ sary to sand using a decreasing fineness of wet/dry sandpaper either by hand or with an electric sander. Extreme surface blemishes may be re­ moved with grade fifty or sixty sand paper, working down to finer grits. Each grit must completely remove the sanding marks from the previous grit. After going through the finest grade of sandpaper, six hundred grit, then it may be necessary to manually rub with 0000 steel wool and then rubbing and polishing compounds may be used. The surface is brought to a brilliant sheen with the use of laminated cloth buffing wheels used in conjunction with polishing compounds in stick form applied to the surface of the rotating wheel. When all of the minute surface scratches have been removed a finished polish may be achieved by waxing the object with classic car wax according to the directions on the can. The surface may then be treated with a non-static and non­ abrasive plastic polish to reduce the static charge and give a little more added protection from scratching. Problems may become apparent after the work has cured. If the casting has cracked, this may be caused by internal stresses being generated. A solution would be to use either less catalyst or a slower reaction type of catalyst; add a flexible resin to the resin used; 141 pop the sides of the mold during gelation to release the exothermic heat; or to avoid using embedments of a different expansion and con­ traction ratio as the resin. For problems of warpage caused by erratic temperatures or unequal thickness and uneven curing; the solution may be to eliminate extreme changes in thickness and thinness; to equalize stresses by applying equal amounts of resin on each side of a panel; to slow down the curing rate; or to use a casting room with an even temperature range. Blushing may occur in which the resin attains a whitish tinge due to water contamination. This will happen if dampness comes in contact with the liquid resin or if water touches the surface of the completed work. Sometimes a tacky surface is left after curing due to incomplete polymerization or air inhibition. This may be cured by increasing the amount of catalyst, covering the surface so air will not come in contact, or applying a heavily catalyzed coat of resin or a gel coat. A dull surface will form if the surface is not kept clean and dust or some form of film such as wax impregnates the surface. In other cases, a dull surface may be eliminated by using a glossy resin coating. Air bubbles may get into the liquid resin during mixing and may be removed by forcing them to the surface.17 Mass casting resin is a moderately facile material to work with if certain considerations are respected. The result may be a beautiful, transparent object reminding one of a casting of ice or glass.

17 Ibid., pp. 117-118. 142

Appendix B

THE CHEMISTR~OF POLYESTER RESINS

Plastics are a group of materials which are solid in the final state but at some point in the process of formation, are sufficiently fluid to be formed into various shapes. An organic material, they are composed of combinations of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine, and/or nitrogen. Polyester resin is a synthetically­ prepared plastic formed by the chemical process, polymerization, in which several units of chemically similar, small molecules, are joined together by heat, pressure or the addition of a catalyst to form larger, long chain macromolecules. Plastics comprise two broad cate­ gories: thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics. Polyester is a thermosetting plastic meaning that once polymerization has completed and the polymer has hardened, reapplying heat or pressure will not soften these plastics. The plastic will not become fluid again but will remain solid up ta its decomposition temperature, around 250° F. Three-dimensional cross-linking of the thermosetting plastics holds the long chains of molecules tightly together. This group includes the phenolics, amino plastics, polyesters, epoxies, silicones, and caseins.1 The thermoplastics, on the other hand, are made up of coiled and long molecules intertwined in a tangled maze. When temperatures are normal, the molecules lie quietly, but once heat is added, kinetic

1Roukes, Nicholas. Sculpture in Plastics, Watson-Guptill: New York, revised edition, 1978, p. 12. 143 energy moves the molecules and the plastic becomes flexible again. When cooled, the plastic will harden and go back to its original state; this phenomena is termed plastic•s 11 memory. 112 This group of plastics includes the acrylics, nylon, polyethylene, polystyrene, vinyls, ABS, polypropylene, polyurethane, and cellulosics.3 Plastics first appeared in 1868; the first plastic material being cellulose nitrate. From the turn of the century on, progress in the field was rapid. Combinations of different chemicals under varied conditions produced complex organic polymers, each development yielding a plastic with its own unique properties. The first commercial poly­ ester, based on glycerine and phthalic acid, was introduced about 1915. During the Thirties, the rapid cure of unsaturated polyester resins dissolved in unsaturated monomers was discovered, yet unsaturated poly­ ester technology as it is known today was non-existent before 1940. During the following ten to twelve years, numerous significant break­ throughs occurred such as the development of room temperature curing systems followed by the availability of raw materials after World War II. This gave impetus to a rapid expansion by 1952 for large-scale commercial production of polyester resins.4 Polyester resins are classified as saturated or unsaturated, de­ pending upon the presence or absence of reactive double bonds in the

2Newman, Thelma R. Plastics as an Art Form, Chilton Book Co.: Philadelphia, 1969, p. 29. 3Roukes, Nicholas. p. 12.

4 11 Leitheiser, Dr. Robert H. 11 Polyesters, Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1969-1970, Vol. 46, No. lOA, McGraw Hill: Philadelphia, October 1969, p. 172. 144

linear polymer. Saturated polyesters, those without multiple bonds, are used in the field of fibers and film production such as with the commercial products, Dacron and Mylar. Unsaturated polyesters are used principally in combination with fiber laminate reinforcement such as in fiberglass molding or without laminates for casting purposes. 5 Un­ saturated polyester resins are products of condensation polymerization6 of glycols and unsaturated dicarboxylic acids by esterification, the reaction between an acid and an alcohol producing an ester and water

( RCOOH + ROH ~ ROR + H20 ) to form 1 inear polymers J . A general purpose polyester resin may be prepared by fusing a mixture of phthalic anhydride, maleic anhydride and propylene glycol at 200° C under an inert gas blanket. In simplified form, this chemistry may be depicted in the following manner: If G = glycol (an alcohol) M = maleic (or fumaric) unsaturated acid P = phthalic (or other saturated) acid Then the linear polymer may be illustrated as: -P-G-M-G-P-G-M-G-P- The polyesters produced are low molecular weight polymers which melt and flow upon heating and easily dissolve in many solvents. If, how­ ever, another unsaturated chemical should be introduced such as the

5siconolfi, C.A. 11 Polyester Resins, .. Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1968-1969, Vol. 45, No. 14A, McGraw Hill: Philadelphia, October 1968, p. 264. 6condensation polymerization is a reaction in which monomer molecules combine with a loss of some simple molecule like water. 7Morrison, Robert Thornton and Boyd, Robert Neilson. Organic Chemistry, Allyn and Bacon, Inc.: Boston, 1974, p. 602. 145 vinyl monomer, styrene, the co-polymerizarion8 will result in cross­ linking of the linear polyester into a complex, three-dimensional polymer which may then be represented as follows: P-G-M-G-P-G-M-G-P sI sl I I P-G-M-G-P-G-M-G-P sI sI I I P-G-M-G-P-G-M-G-P where S represents styrene or other cross-linking monomers. In use, a strong three-dimensional polymer is produced when the polyester and the monomer (styrene) are chemically bonded together. This cross-linking is achieved by the addition and activation of a free radical catalyst, usually an organic peroxide such as methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, MEKP, commonly used because of low cost, availability and ease of handling. After addition of the catalyst, the copolymerization of the unsaturated polyester with the vinyl monomer is highly exothermic with temperatures in excess of 400° F developed in thick sections. To prevent premature gelation during production, storage and shipment, an inhibitor9 such as hydroqu~ one is added to the resin during manufacturing to insure adequ<' 2 shelf 1 i fe. The inhibitor also controls the 11 pot 1 ife 11 or wor~ 11g time of the resin between addition of the catalyst until the

/ ti1 .. e the resin sets up or gels. Polyesters may be cured at ambient

8If a mixture of two or more monomers is allowed to undergo polymerization, there is obtained a copolymer--a polymer that contains two or more kinds of monomeric units in the same molecule. 9The inhibitor functions as a free radical trap, preventing premiture gelation by peroxides which could possibly be formed due to excess air present or air oxidation during processing and storage. 146 temperatures if suitable promoters are added to the resin to effect the breakdown of the slowly decomposing peroxide catalysts. Cobalt salts such as cobalt napthanate are very effective for promoting ketone peroxides such as MEKP. 10 The metal in these accelerators is respon­ sible for the slight tint of color seen in the fintshed solid casting. Various other additives are incorporated into polyester resins to improve handling characteristics or resin performance. Examples of these are ultraviolet stabilizers to prevent polyester degradation upon exposure to intense ultraviolet light (placing cast resin sculpture outdoors will normally result in yellowing), flame retardance may be incorporated, and thixotropic agents may be added to prevent vertical sagging of the gel during curing. 11

10Leitheiser, Dr. Robert H. 11 Polyesters, 11 p. 176 11 Ibid.