Mimi Herbert’s exploration of minimalism through bold color, opacity, translucence and shape is exemplified in Quasar, 2022. Rising to prominence among the Washington Color School artists of the 1970s, Herbert has refined her idiosyncratic reductionist style featuring acrylic sheets that are molded, twisted and folded by hand at high temperatures before being cooled and solidified, hardening the forms she sculpts. The result is a captivating sculpture that calls attention to texture, positive and negative space, and the process of its own creation. Her characteristic simplicity of color produces a greater visual interest in the forms and folds that the acrylic takes, defying the expectations of this material’s properties and forcing the eye to take a closer look. This is the case for Quasar, where translucent neon green pops against a dark purple base. The color and opacity contrast between the layers, allowing the texture of acrylic to be the focal point. The soft, almost pillowy appearance of the work only serves to further defy our tactile understanding of the medium.
Quasar draws its name from the compact, starlike celestial body with a power output greater than our entire galaxy, in other words, a black hole of sorts. At once remarkably luminous and terrifyingly powerful, Herbert creates a similar affective juxtaposition within the present work.
Exhibited in Color My World: Avery, Herbert, & Kahn at Taylor Graham in 2023, Quasar is a late example of the artist’s work, which she created at the age of 86. Herbert’s oeuvre is featured in the permanent collections of numerous public institutions, notably the National Gallery of Art, where her sculpture Red Triplet, 1974, was reinstalled in 2022 in their new Atrium space. In 2002 the Smithsonian National Museum of American History acquired her “Tribute” sculptures created in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11.