Favorite Things: Forest Glass

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Casey Lewis

Forest Glass, Katherine Gray, United States, Los Angeles, CA, 2009 (2010.4.49)

Half the fun with glass is trying to discover what message the artist meant to convey, if any, with their piece and then trying to decide what you see when looking at the piece. My favorite piece in the Museum took me nearly a month to figure out, despite walking by it every day. When I did finally realize what it was and what the artist’s methodology and message were, I fell in love with the piece. It’s clever and thought-provoking and it’s really fun to watch realization dawn in the eyes of a visitor when they realize what they’re actually looking at.

My favorite piece is called Forest Glass, by Katherine Gray, an American glass artist. Gray is an accomplished glassblower of both non-functional and functional glass vessels. Though her skills as a glassblower have landed her in several museums, Forest Glass is a departure from her usual style in the sense that she did not blow a single one of the 2,000 glass cups used in the piece. Instead, Gray bought used glass cups at thrift stores and on eBay varying in colors from clear glass to shades of brown and green. Once she acquired all of the 2,000 glass cups, Gray arranged them by color on stands created from Plexiglas and steel to create three separate trees, complete with brown trunks and green leaves.

At first glance, one tends to just walk by the piece or even stop and wonder why there are three stands of shelves filled with glass cups looking like a really big kitchen cupboard in the Museum. But once people realize that there are trees shaped from the glasses, surrounded by clear glass, giving it an ethereal and airy feel, the piece becomes whimsical and fun. However, the message behind the trees is one of caution and consciousness.

Forest Glass is a piece about the destruction that is a result of the creation of things, specifically with glass. Many forests were destroyed in order to fuel glass furnaces, thereby destroying whole forests in the pursuit of creating something new and beautiful. By creating the piece entirely out of found glass cups, Gray is recreating the forest that was destroyed in order to fuel the glassmaking industry. While beautiful and fanciful, the image of the glass trees among the glass air also encourages humans to be conscious of the devastation that beauty can cause. Gray’s piece is one with character and depth, layers to peel back and understand. That’s why it’s my favorite piece in the Museum.

- Casey Lewis, Graduate Intern, Education Department

Favorite Things: Anthem of Joy in Glass

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

Anthem of Joy in Glass, Vera Liskova, Czechoslovakia, Prague, 1977 (79.3.14).

This week’s object is a favorite of William Gudenrath, Resident Adviser, The Studio

It still catches me by surprise when I get tongue-tied while standing in front of Anthem of Joy in Glass by Vera Liskova. The first time it happened was during a taping of the Martha Stewart Show. I was asked to give a tour of the galleries, impromptu and on camera.

We sailed along comfortably from ancient glass through the Renaissance, approaching Art Nouveau. After a brief homage to the birth of studio glass, the crew lit Anthem of Joy and rewired me for sound. The producer said, “We’re rolling,” and it happened: I was speechless. More accurately, I was unable to speak. I coughed, feigned ignorance, and suggested that Tina Oldknow, our curator of modern glass, finish the tour. The crew never knew the impact this object had on me, so unexpectedly.

In Anthem of Joy, Liskova, working with a master scientific glassblower, exploits brilliantly the most basic exercise in a beginning lampworking class: pulling points. A couple of inches of tubing are heated in a flame. Each side is then pulled apart a foot or so to create an evenly narrowing “isthmus” between the wider parts. Next, using a handtorch, the tubes are joined at their sides. The otherwise mundane technical virtuosity is transcended because of the careful grading of the diameters and lengths of the tubes and points. The Fibonacci-like effect references iconic aspects of the natural world and living creatures.

Why does Anthem of Joy so intensely speak to me? I began studying lampworking at age 12 by (how else?) pulling thousands of points. At 16, I fell in love with the music of Bach and began studying the organ with its endless rows of shiny metal pipes, each exponentially longer than the one before. The middle name of my beloved wife is “Joy.” But it is, of course, impossible to fully explain any of our emotional preferences, much less our aesthetic leanings.

Davide Salvadore at The Studio

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Corning Museum of Glass

Today’s post was written by Jordan Miller, who filmed Salvadore’s workshop at The Studio in May 2011.

It was just another day at the office. Standing two feet from scorching hot glass and strapped to thirty-five pounds of camera gear. My eyes remained fixed on my camera viewfinder. What better way to experience the once secret glassmaking techniques of Murano than to watch a master artist at work?

While watching Davide Salvadore at work, I quickly jumped to the conclusion that working with glass was just just another day at the office for him. From behind the camera, I could see his quest for perfection and constant drive to push the boundaries of this material he loves. It was easy to see that Davide had a special connection with this material. A special trust that gave Davide the ability to allow the glass to shape his ideas.

For centuries, Venetian glassmakers were subject to restrictive laws designed to preserve the secrets of Venetian glassmaking while working exclusively on the island of Murano. Yet today, I watched Davide teach this craft to his students during his studio demo.

While filming Davide at work, I felt like I was taking a trip back in time. Like the many Murano artists before him, Davide was passing down his craft to others so that they might carry on his shapes and ideas for the future. Davide was leaving his legacy right in front of me. As I looked closely, I could see that his final products were in fact reflections of his own experience in life. His pieces were not lifeless, but alive. Davide believes that in glasswork, it is essential for the participant to utilize their sense of touch. “Sight alone is insufficient” according to Davide. He encourages his audience to have a personal encounter with his work. To have them touch his work and understand each shape and movement. To put it simply, Davide wants his viewers to experience what he feels for his art—passion and love.

Favorite Things: Drawings by Auguste Herbst

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

This week’s object is a favorite of Diane Dolbashian, Librarian, Rakow Research Library

Design drawing for cut glass ceiling light fixture, Auguste Herbst, circa 1925.

Recently, research librarian Gail Bardhan surprised me with a group of original drawings by Auguste Herbst, a designer and artistic director at the glass firm founded by Emile Gallé. The Herbst drawings seemed to epitomize all that I admire in the stylistic sensibilities of Art Deco design—architectural, faceted, geometric, and both luxurious and functional in its simple elegance. Above all, the drawings appealed to my penchant for order.

The fact that relatively little is known about Herbst’s life beyond his association with Gallé only deepened the mystery of the man and the allure of these drawings as clues to who he may have been. We immediately see that Herbst was a proficient draftsman. His technique was faultless, with each line precisely envisioned and executed, as in an architectural blueprint. Witness the drawing of a formal Art Deco ceiling light fixture. Designed to cast its glow upward, it resembles an inverted skyscraper!

An even bigger surprise came when Gail opened a second box of drawings. In style and execution, these contrasted sharply with the first set. They appeared to be spontaneous sketches, almost improvised, and yet were also carefully framed allusions to nature and classicism. The Art Deco aesthetic was still clearly predominant. However, the geometric rigor had softened into fluid lines and organic shapes, while the decorative elements, so evocative of warm seas and marine life, floated freely through the objects. Here were two radically different moods of the same man.

Design drawing for two urns, Auguste Herbst, circa 1925.

It is an extraordinary privilege to work in the Rakow Library. I never know when I may encounter an artist from a century ago or have the chance to admire an inextinguishable talent. The day I saw the Herbst designs was certainly one of those moments.

The Late Show

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

It’s 5:45 p.m. at the Museum, and while for some the work day ends at 5, Aaron Jack and Dan Alexander are still at work on the Courtyard Stage. There’s a well-known phrase that says “Go big, or go home,” and, for these two, staying later at the Museum means the chance to take more risks, create larger works in glass, and put on an entertaining show.

The Late Show, one of the Museum’s Hot Glass Shows, takes advantage of extended Museum hours. The last show of the day, it’s a little longer than the other shows, and as anyone who’s ever been would agree, it’s even more fun than other shows of the day.

“The Late Show is a show where we get to push ourselves more as glassmakers,” says Dan. Aaron agrees, “It’s a risk, we can go bigger…”

Dan explains how color is added to the glass by bar for an even color throughout the piece.

The Hot Glass Show is an exciting performance in glassmaking, but it’s also a chance to learn about glass from the people who work with it every day. Both gaffers agree that one of the great things about the longer Late Show is that they can share more with the audience about the properties of glass and about glass history.

Aaron recalled one show where he may have gone a little too big – the piece was too large to fit in the annealing oven. When glass is not cooled slowly at an even temperature, it creates strain and the piece will break. “We knew that it was going to break anyway,” he said. And so he took advantage of the rare opportunity to show firsthand what happens to glass that does not go through the annealing process. “We threw water on the hot glass onstage and it just shattered – the audience was shocked!”

Emily from Scranton, PA, with sister Sara, was one of the night's winners.

The Late Show is an opportunity for the gaffers to be creative as artists, and the atmosphere lends to colorful and lively pieces. “We get to talk and joke around more,” says Aaron. Dan adds, “There’s more crowd involvement, the audience gets to know us better and can ask more questions.”

But the biggest draw to the Late Show is the possibility to win a glass piece. Dan and Aaron like to have fun with the raffle, having the audience all stand up, sitting down only when the number called is not on their raffle ticket. The lucky last person standing wins a piece of glass made during a previous Hot Glass Show.

Catch the Late Show every evening at 5:45 p.m. on the Courtyard Stage through September 6. For more information on the Hot Glass Show, visit http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=144

See more photos from the Late Show with Aaron and Dan on Flickr http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvH9N28

Favorite Things: Window Bkd #6

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

This week’s object is a favorite of Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass

Window Bkd #6, Larry Bell, United States, Taos, NM, 1993 (94.4.146).

One of my favorite works in the contemporary collection is a 1992 wall piece by Larry Bell, titled Window Bkd #6, that was acquired by the Museum in 1994.

In the 1960s, Bell broke new ground in contemporary sculpture with his illusionistic glass boxes and large-scale glass sculptures. Living and working in southern California, he was one of a group of avant-garde artists exploring Minimalism and light and space in sculpture. His works were executed in plate glass that was made highly reflective with thin coatings of vaporized metal.

During the American Studio Glass movement’s first decade, few American artists attempted to work with glass in large scale. While Harvey Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky and other American studio glass pioneers were learning how to blow glass and to treat it sculpturally, other artists, such as Bell, Christopher Wilmarth, and Lucas Samaras, were manipulating commercial plate glass and mirror. To studio glass artists, the work of these sculptors was important for the way in which the material was approached.

In Window Bkd #6, vaporized metals create a reflective surface that manipulates light and space. Light shifts and refracts among the particles on the vacuum-coated surface, causing the colors to iridesce from gold or silver to blue or violet. The glass is surrounded by a thick frame of black denim, which absorbs light. For Bell, the behavior of reflected and absorbed light is the subject of this work, as is the ability of the reflective layers of glass to create space.

2011 Hot Glass Roadshow: Glass Art Society, Seattle – Guido Gerlitz

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

For his first time on the Roadshow stage, Bay Area artist Guido Gerlitz demonstrated sculpting a femur bone. Noting its symbolism of strength, power and rejuvenation, he was interested in working with the form of the object in glass. Guido was assisted by his studio partner Luca Rattazzi and Theron Hanks, a twelve year-old rising star who has been a student of Guido’s.

Rob Swidergal and Guido Gerlitz

See more photos from GAS in Seattle: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjv39EuW

2011 Hot Glass Roadshow: Glass Art Society, Seattle – Jim Mongrain

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

Jim Mongrain demonstrates a variety of Venetian goblet techniques using the help of assistants Sarah Gilbert, Nick Fruin, Jason Christian, and twelve year-old Theron Hanks. He prefers focusing on showing the technical side of the Italian technique. “I’ve always enjoyed making [them], and it’s always challenging as well.”

Twelve year-old Theron Hanks assists Jim Mongrain at the Hot Glass Roadshow.

GAS Seattle

2011 Hot Glass Roadshow: Glass Art Society, Seattle – Keke Cribbs and Ross Richmond

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

In a method she calls “hot printing,” Keke Cribbs brings her background in print to this collaboration with sculptor Ross Richmond. Keke drew a pattern in colored fine glass powder while Ross began working the glass. Ross then carefully rolled the hot glass over the design, blending the two artists’ work to create this vibrant piece.

Ross Richmond gaffs a Keke Cribbs design

Rik Allen with Keke Cribbs.

2011 Hot Glass Roadshow: Glass Art Society, Seattle – Rodman Miller

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Mandy Kritzeck

With a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and a Ph.D in Biology, you’d think that Rodman Miller would be conducting research as a university professor. Instead, Rodman prefers the hot shop. “Yes,” he says, “this is much more fun.” The great-grandson of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Rodman left academia after taking a glass blowing course, but he still uses his background in microbiology – Rodman draws inspiration for his glass pieces from the shapes that he used to see under a microscope.

Corning Museum of Glass

Behind the Glass

Monthly Archives: August 2011