Cut colored glass, bonded, metal framework; framed digital ink-jet print on paper.

Historical images often serve as an inspiration for contempo¬rary artists, and this is especially true for Marta Klonowska. Her sculptures reproduce elements found in historical paintings, such as a dog shown with its owner in an 18th-century portrait, or a pair of shoes worn by a character in a 17th-century interior scene. In focusing on the secondary characters that appear in the paintings, Klonowska strips away the historical and societal layers of the pictures to learn more about their subjects. The painted objects or animals selected by Klonowska are enlarged and remade by her in three-dimensional form. Broken glass is her material, and she chooses a single color for her pieces. She bonds her glass shards onto a metal armature that is covered with wire gauze. All of the sculptures are paired with prints of the original artworks that inspired them, which are tinted the same color as the glass Klonowska has chosen. The Lynx is reproduced from a sketch by the famous German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Dürer drew the lynx, and other wild animals, during a visit to the royal zoological gardens in Brussels in 1521. Klonowska displays, with the sculpture, a reproduction of this page from the artist’s sketchbook. The original pen and black ink drawing is appropriately reflected in Klonowska’s choice of a neutral blue-green material, the natural color of glass. The original Sheet of Studies with Sketches of Animals and Landscapes by Albrecht Dürer is in the collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachu¬setts (1955.1848). Signed: “MK MMIX.” For more information, see Eva-Maria Fahrner Tutsek, ed., In the Name of Love: Contemporary Glass = Zeitgenössisches Glas, Berlin: Kerber Verlag, 2012.