Untitled 1969

Curator: Let’s discuss this captivating glass sculpture. Created in 1969, Helen Pashgian left this one Untitled, which only encourages the viewer to rely solely on the sensorial impact. What’s your first impression? Editor: It gives me a sense of otherworldly isolation. A delicate enclosure. I’m wondering if the formal qualities of the piece reflect the social alienation of the late 60s, particularly for women artists. Curator: It is intriguing that you connect it with social issues! As I look closer at Pashgian's formal decision-making here, I notice how the shape simultaneously invites and deflects touch, playing with ideas about visual access versus physical interaction that seem critical to understanding Minimalism. Editor: And there is such complexity to her decision-making! It could be argued that works like these pushed against male-dominated art movements by centering new forms of light and a feminine visual language through translucence, blurring, and the implied ephemerality that resists a solely patriarchal reading of art history. Curator: Interesting reading of these material choices! I appreciate how the shape provides the opportunity to observe and consider how light refracts and diffuses. I also consider it a form of phenomenology through her strategic abstraction. Editor: True! I see this sculpture and it feels almost like a protest of that generation against objectification—opting for quiet visual subversion through abstraction rather than directly confrontational imagery. Curator: I’ve never looked at this form from that angle before. Thinking about the dialogue around gender within postwar American art history gives me an added perspective as to what Pashigan could be advocating! Editor: Agreed. There is always more than what the eye first perceives when the artist employs particular shapes within their visual lexicon!