Ron Cooper (American, b. 1943), Baranowski Commission II

1986, polyester resin, plexiglass, pigment, and fiberglass, retaining Gallery label to verso.

49 3/4 x 49 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.

Ranchos Trading Post, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Ron Cooper is among the pioneering California-based Light and Space artists, so-called because they broke beyond the bounds of the physical object to experiment with the manipulation of light and space and their effects on perception. Cooper works with variously colored fluorescent lights, as well as materials like glass panels, resin, and fiberglass that hold, refract, and reflect light. Though his vocabulary is Minimalist—he crafts cubes, rectangles, and circles out of the interplay of light on the materials he uses—his works are luminous, insubstantial, devoid of mass and solidity. In Floating Volume of Light (1972), for example, Cooper directs two beams of light to cross each other in mid-air, forming a cubic sculpture of light that hovers in space.

Hairlines to a few corners and edges; one corner with glued repair; some chipping to the upper plane's perimeter; front panel is uniformly concave.