Cobalt and Gold Study II

Lynda Benglis brought an innovative, sometimes jarring perspective to the male-dominated Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960s. Her distinctive and influential sculptural language is articulated through diverse techniques and materials—including polyurethane foam, beeswax, plaster, bronze, and cast aluminum—and often alludes to painterly aspects of Abstract Expressionism while advancing concerns of Post-Minimalism. Cobalt and Gold Study II, although small in scale, is an example of one of her signature modes of production during the 1970s. Benglis’s “study” of cobalt and gold is a conceptual one, using plaster and gold leaf as stand-ins to explore the fluidity of metal. The title and apparent solidity of the sculpture run counter to its inherent malleability—bunched and folded onto itself.