Designer: Vasa Velizar Mihich (b. 1933)

Item: Vasa Cube Set of 10

Manufactured by: Vasa Velizar Mihich

Country of origin: United States

Year made: 1993

Materials: Laminated Acrylic

Dimensions: Each cube is 2” x 2” x 2”

Description: Here is a full set of ten two inch cubes in various colors. This set was purchased from the artist in 1993 by a prominent person with close ties to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. We purchased this set from his daughter.

Vasa is still producing these multiples in sets of 10 in limited editions each year with a retail price that just went up to $750, if and when they are available. Vintage examples are much scarcer, more collectable and very rapidly rising in value. In 2021 a set of ten in this size from the same period sold at auction for $1,400 not including the additional 30% buyers premium; another set of ten in 2 1/2” size hammered for $4,750 not including the 30% buyers premium, and in November 2021 another set of ten in this size with two cubes having more serious corner bruises brought over $1,000 on eBay.

Vasa Velizar Mihich (born 1933), known as Vasa, is an American artist based in Los Angeles, California. Mihich was born in Yugoslavia and moved to the United States in 1960. An academically trained painter he was also a professor at the University of California in its Department of Design and Media Arts. He taught theories of color to understand interdependence and interaction of color and form, color and quantity, color and placement, and after-image. He makes laminated acrylic sculptures that reflect and refract light.

Vasa’s work has been exhibited in art galleries in the United States, Japan, and Italy and in the permanent collections of important public museums such as the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Denver Art Museum, the Phillips Collection, the Hammer Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art and many others.

Condition: Over all very good. Very light scuffs and scratching from many years of handling and enjoyment. There are no chips, nicks, losses or cracks to the acrylic, which are often found with these cubes. However, one cube has two internal corner bruises which we photographed that are noticeable, see last image. Two others have barely noticeable internal corner bruises. These internal corner bruises are not cracks in the acrylic, but places where some impact caused the laminate color layer to become slightly unlamented and do not detract when the cubes are displayed, as shown.