Untitled (La Jolla Museum) 1973

Ron Cooper made this ‘Untitled (La Jolla Museum)’ out of cast polyester resin, a material that’s so smooth and cool, it could almost be water. There’s something about the way the light catches this piece. It’s so clean, almost like a photograph, but then the eye gets drawn into a space that feels infinite. A bit like how Agnes Martin used to paint! The white square in the middle is like a portal. When you’re painting, sometimes you just have to let the material take over, see where it leads you. The way the light interacts with that resin surface, it’s mesmerizing. Is this a painting, or sculpture? Does it matter? All these West Coast light and space artists are in dialogue with each other, pushing and pulling at the limits of the medium and space itself. Art is always this conversation, an echo chamber. It's all ambiguous and up for grabs.