Art Museum Gets Borofsky’s ‘Ruby’ Work

Perched at an angle on a corner of the roof of the Newport Harbor Art Museum is its latest acquisition, “Ruby,” a 5-foot-tall sculpture by the internationally known Jonathan Borofsky.

The faceted, plastic piece contains an internal lighting system and swaying, diamond-shaped light deflectors. During the day it looks like a solid form. At night, when the lights are on (they stay on till 10 p.m.), it looks like a transparent illuminated beacon.

The piece was commissioned for an undisclosed amount A by the museum’s acquisition committee, which has been planning for an outdoor piece by Borofsky for the past six years.

Borofsky, born in Boston in 1942, emerged as an artist in New York in the early 1970s. A former resident of Venice, Calif., he now lives in Ogunquit, Me., but maintains his Market Street studio.

He is particularly known for incorporating the content of his dreams in his work. The gem shape of “Ruby” first came to him in a dream and has been the subject of several of his drawings and paintings.

“Slowly, the image became a symbol for my heart,” he said in a prepared announcement, “because in the dream, finding this shiny jewel felt good. I see the jewel as a metaphor both for my heart and the heart in all of us. I wish the ‘Ruby,’ on its precarious perch, to create magic for a moment, to cause the viewer to seek something within the building which is equally mysterious.”