Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass
The primary function of the Contemporary Glass Gallery at The Corning Museum of Glass is to present large works of contemporary art in glass, yet this space is not restricted to sculpture and installations. The Gallery also contains smaller objects and nonfunctional vessels in a variety of glassworking techniques, such as blowing, casting, kiln-forming, flameworking, laminating, beading, and assemblage.
The Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass demonstrates the different ways in which glass is used as a medium for contemporary art. The display focuses on unique objects that explore ideas. It is an international grouping, and most of the objects were made during the last two decades.
Window Bkd #6
Larry Bell (American, b. 1939)
United States, Taos, New Mexico, 1992
Sheet glass; vaporized metals (incomel and silicon monoxide), wood and fabric frame
94.4.146
The interface of light and surface is my medium. . . .Most of the glass sculptures and projects that I have done require the viewer to interact with the work in the actual space it is presented. They become a part of it. —Larry Bell
In the 1960s, Larry Bell broke new ground in contemporary sculpture with his illusionistic boxes and large-scale sculptures. These pieces were executed in plate glass that was made highly reflective with thin coatings of vaporized metal. Bell has since continued to explore these materials in two- and three-dimensional works.
In this two-dimensional piece, vaporized metals are used to create the central image on several panels of layered glass. Light shifts and refracts among the particles on the vacuum-coated surface, causing colors to iridesce from gold or silver to blue or violet. The glass is surrounded by black denim, which absorbs light. For Bell, the behavior of reflected and absorbed light is the subject of this work.
Dedicant #8
Howard Ben Tré (American, b. 1949)
United States, Providence, Rhode Island, 1987
Cast; lead, gilding, brass
87.4.57, the 2nd Rakow Commission
Howard Ben Tré's sculptures are inspired by elements of architecture and industry, such as columns, heavy stone fragments, ancient monoliths, and machine parts, but their massiveness suggests cast metal rather than glass.
In Dedicant #8 , the artist creates visual tension between the shape of the sculpture, which is blocky and semi-industrial, and its tactile surface and luminous color. Bars of carved and gilded lead, inserted into the glass mass, transform the object into a altar-like monument with ritualistic implications.
Present
Nicole Chesney (American, b. 1971)
United States, Cranston, Rhode Island, 2005
Sandblasted mirror; oil paint
2005.4.162, the 20th Rakow Commission
The space in which we spend our nocturnal hours has no perspective, no distance . . . and the skies we soar through are wholly interior. –Gaston Bachelard
In her investigations of light, space, perception, and imagination, Nicole Chesney has been inspired by the writings of the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1885–1962). Bachelard's books Water and Dreams (1942) and The Right to Dream (1970), a collection of essays on visual art and literature written between 1939 and 1962, have had special meaning for Chesney in the development of her “Sky/Water” series, to which Present belongs.
In the “Sky/Water” series, Chesney studies Bachelard's interest in the cloudless, empty sky, a sky that he calls the “unsilvered mirror,” which refers both to the exterior sky and the “interior skies of dreams.” These skies are the “landscapes of the soul . . . infinite like space and time . . . landscapes without features, living in gentle, changing colors, like memory.”
Present, a waterscape or skyscape, is an abstract, dreamlike depiction of fog or clouds, a poetic visual interpretation of the union of the elements of air and water. Like glass, air is transparent, and like glass, water is reflective. Using glass as her canvas, Chesney achieves a luminosity, depth, transparency, and reflection that no other material affords.
Chesney's panels are not literal depictions of a specific skyscape or landscape, and this is not her aim. Present can appear to be a section of a cloud in closeup, or it can represent a distant sky. In this contradiction, allusion is made to Bachelard's idea that “a space that has lost its horizons draws in on itself.” Like the vast sky that we look into, and the borderless space of the dream, there is no perspective and there are no moorings in Present. The space of Present reflects both interior and exterior space, imaginative and physical experience.
Present is meditative and reverie-inducing, and this is the artist's intent. The goal of meditation is the awareness of the present, where, in the absence of the fear of the past and the future, there is security and repose.
Macchia Seaform Group
Dale Chihuly (American, b. 1941)
With the assistance of Benjamin Moore and William Morris
United States, Providence, Rhode Island, 1982
Mold-blown and hot-worked
83.4.45, gift of Michael J. Bove III
Dale Chihuly is an internationally celebrated personality in contemporary art and design whose prominence in the field of studio glass is unmatched. From the beginning of his involvement with glass in the 1960s, Chihuly has focused on the sculptural qualities of the material, using the blown vessel as a vehicle for the exploration of color and form.
Chihuly is also an influential teacher. In 1969, he was hired to develop the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he taught until 1983. He founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State, with the Seattle art patrons John and Anne Gould Hauberg, in 1971. Chihuly was the first American studio glass artist to travel to Murano to observe Venetian glassmaking techniques. He and the artists who followed him there, such as Richard Marquis and Benjamin Moore, stayed at Venini for months, learning techniques that had been carefully guarded for centuries.
The Seaforms are characterized by their soft colors and open, unstructured forms that are the result of shaping the glass with heat, gravity, and minimal tooling. This Seaform Group is a hybrid that includes elements of Chihuly's subsequent Macchia (spotted) vessels.
Disk
Václav Cigler (Czech, b. 1929)
Czechoslovakia, Bratislava, 1975
Optical glass, cast, cut
82.3.11
Václav Cigler uses glass to create space. Throughout his career, he has investigated and artistically defined the mechanics of transparency and reflection. His sculptures are not meant to be displayed in neutral contexts, but to absorb, reflect, and interpret the world around them. They are designed to come alive in interaction with their environments.
Cigler is recognized as a pioneer in using cut optical glass to create sculpture, and he is an influential teacher. He has also made a significant contribution to architecture with his ambitious lighting designs and glass architectural elements. In recent years, his work has ranged from small conceptual objects to room-size installations and outdoor projects.
Cercle (Circle)
Bernard Dejonghe (French, b. 1942)
France, Briançon, 1995
Cast and cut
97.3.72, purchased with funds from the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family
Glass is a futuristic material that has its roots in a time long past. —Bernard Dejonghe
The cold, white blocks of Bernard Dejonghe's sculpture are more evocative of snow and ice than of the intense heat of the glass kiln. Dejonghe casts his colorless, optical-quality glass so that it develops a hard, devitrified white crust that is then chiseled. The result is a sculpture that has the depth and clarity of crystal with the rough and tactile surface of weathered glass or stone.
A sculptor, Dejonghe worked primarily in ceramics before turning to glass, and he is still interested in both materials.
West Sky
Alessandro Diaz de Santillana (Italian, b. 1959)
Italy, Murano, 1997
Blown and silvered; steel structure
2000.3.25
The Sky works are splinters of heaven fallen to earth. They mirror the heavens, the earth, and the self, who is watching. My dream is to put one of my works on the sacred Greek island of Delos. Invisible. —Alessandro Diaz de Santillana
Alessandro Diaz de Santillana uses color and form to interpret the four elements of the exterior world (air, earth, fire, and water) and the five senses of the interior world (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). His abstract sculptures are minimal yet sensuous.
In West Sky, he translates the element of sky and its sense-associations (light, air, wind, cold, fresh, open) into a hard, reflective, aerodynamic vertical. This frozen silver zeppelin is made invisible by its mirrored surface filled with air bubbles, which reflects the world around it.
Spiral Forms
Bert Frijns (Dutch, b. 1953)
The Netherlands, Burgh-Haainstede, 1994
Slumped float glass, cut
95.3.76
Everyday plate glass is a material that becomes luminous and poetic in the hands of Bert Frijns. He nests his simple, minimal vessels, or fills them with water, to accentuate the material's transparency. Generally, people look through transparent glass without really thinking about it, just as we look through the glass of this case to see the objects inside. Frijns, however, wants us to see transparency, to make it visible.
Jump
Judy Hill (American, b. 1953)
United States, Portland, Oregon, 1993
Cast; raku-fired ceramic, assembled
95.4.1
Judy Hill makes female figures that look identical, but which are individualized through posture and gesture. All of her figures, whether single or grouped, are portraits of herself that reflect different states of mind, thoughts, preoccupations, and experiences.
Black Cube
Marian Karel (Czech, b. 1944)
Czech Republic, Prague, 2000
Chodopak (Vitrolite), wood; assembled
2000.3.63, gift of the artist and Heller Gallery
For me, glass is not necessarily a material for design, sculpture, or architecture. It is a material for light. My concerns lie in capturing the dynamics of form in space, exploring the contrast of volumes, the tension between interior and exterior spaces, and overcoming the boundaries between light and shadow. —Marian Karel
Black Cube is so dark and reflective that it is almost invisible; it appears to lack substance, like a shadow. Yet its slightly bulging sides reveal an energy contained within.
This sculpture illustrates a principle that the influential professor Josef Kaplický taught his students, who included such artists as Stanislav Libenský and Václav Cigler. Karel, who studied with Libenský, also learned this principle. “Abstraction in art,” Kaplický said, “is like an egg. The geometric shape on the outside is enlivened by the warm and mysterious life inside of it.” What Kaplický meant was that all abstract sculpture must have an inner life, an inner energy, to give it meaning.
In Karel's drawing of Black Cube , which you see here, the energy inside the sculpture is created by spheres and squares that act as an internal dynamo. This theoretical energy source pushes the walls of the cube outward, creating the bulging sides and the distortion of the reflective surface.
Karel uses light, glass, and geometric forms to make illusionistic sculptures that challenge the viewer's perceptions of space and dimension. He especially likes to work outdoors, where his constructions can interact with the environment, absorbing color and light.
Evening Dress with Shawl
Karen LaMonte (American, b. 1967)
Czech Republic, Železný Brod, 2004
Mold-melted and cut
2005.3.21, gift in part of The Ennion Society
I use clothing as a metaphor for identity and human presence. Rendered in glass, clothing becomes a window to the interior, where only the impression of the physical body remains. —Karen LaMonte
Karen LaMonte is a young artist whose monumental sculptures in cast glass have received international attention. Her subject is the dress, which is always life-size, whether it is for an infant, a young girl, or a woman. She explores a variety of styles of clothing in her work, from stiff and frilly Victorian dresses to idealized classical drapery. Her fashion choices reflect changing notions of beauty, how women view themselves, and how they have been viewed by others.
Casting glass on such a large scale is extremely difficult. LaMonte worked her way up from small-scale castings to medium-range pieces. Wanting to increase the scale of her sculptures but limited by the facilities in New York City, she turned to the only place capable of meeting her technical requirements: the Czech Republic.
In recent years, LaMonte has worked in Železný Brod. She uses art students, prostitutes, and herself as models for the interiors of her sculptures, of which this is one example. The process of moldmaking is complex, since separate castings and wax models are made of the bodies and the clothing. The final, hollow casting in glass articulates the interior and exterior forms.
It's Raining Knives
Silvia Levenson (Argentinean, b. 1957)
Italy, Vigevano, 1996–2004
Cast; artificial grass, nylon line
2004.3.29, the 19th Rakow Commission
My art is about my life. Everyone has anxieties and fears, and I try to resolve some of these feelings in my work. It's Raining Knives could be any suburb. The piece is about us, and family, and what is happening now. We may feel safe and secure in our houses, but the truth is that we can never be sure.
Glass is not a neutral material, but a very powerful medium of communication. It is a wonderful material that is both beautiful and treacherous. I use knives and scissors in my work because they are ordinary, everyday objects that can suddenly become dangerous. For me, knives symbolize the possibility of violence, rather than violence itself. —Silvia Levenson
Silvia Levenson was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She fled the military dictatorship of Gen. Jorge Rafaél Videla, and she moved to Italy with her husband and children in 1981. Videla, who rose to power amid Argentina's political and economic unrest in the 1970s, led the military coup that deposed Isabel Perón on March 24, 1976. He retired as head of the military junta in 1981, but civilian rule was not restored in Argentina until 1983.
Thousands of Argentineans were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered during Videla's dictatorship. Levenson, who was a political activist, remembers this period of her life as being very intense and frightening. “Thirty thousand people disappeared during the dictatorship,” she says. “Two of my cousins and my uncle's wife disappeared, and my sister was imprisoned.” Much of Levenson's art is an attempt to resolve the difficulties of living with threats of violence, both political and domestic, that are out of our control.
The installation, It's Raining Knives, was conceived in 1996 in response to Levenson's personal experiences during the Videla dictatorship. It has since become a thought-provoking commentary on the threat of terrorism in general. Rather than making a political statement, Levenson's work is about coming to terms with fear by revealing and facing our most uncomfortable emotions.
Red Pyramid
Stanislav Libenský (Czech, 1921–2002) and Jaroslava Brychtová (Czech, b. 1924)
Czech Republic, Železný Brod, 1993
Mold-melted and cut
94.3.101, gift of the artists
Glass is light. We introduce the light dynamic into the center of the glass mass. That is the definition of the fourth dimension, which cannot be achieved in any other material .—Jaroslava Brychtová
Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová pioneered, explored, developed, and defined glass as a medium for sculpture. The career in glass of this husband and wife team spanned more than 45 years. Their art explores ideas about light, space, transparency, and volume.
For Red Pyramid and other sculptures, drawings were created by Libenský in his studio and then given to Brychtová, who translated them into three-dimensional clay models. The process of conceiving a sculpture—developing the concept, envisioning the form in three dimensions, and selecting the color of the glass to be used—was shared by the artists. While much abstract art can seem cold or removed, the sculptures of Libenský and Brychtová communicate emotion through color and light.
This sculpture illustrates a principle that Libenský's professor, Josef Kaplický, taught him. “Abstraction in art,” Kaplický said, “is like an egg. The geometric shape on the outside is enlivened by the warm and mysterious life inside of it.” What Kaplický meant was that all abstract sculpture must have an inner life, an inner energy, to give it meaning. In this sculpture, the artists use light as their source of internal energy.
Untitled (after A. Martini)
Beth Lipman (American, b. 1971)
United States, Rindge, New Hampshire, 2001
Blown, hot-formed, flameworked; enamel transfer, latex glass paint, stained wood base
2001.4.20
Beth Lipman is an admirer of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting, in which the presentation of beautifully composed game, fish, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables is symbolic of the passing of time, mortality, and the transience of earthly achievements.
This sculpture re-creates a generic still life by an unknown Italian painter, A. Martini. This and other genre paintings were often made into decorative items such as enamel decals. Lipman, who bought the vintage decal, re-created the painting in the decal in glass. She then applied the decal to her glass sculpture.
By combining these materials, Lipman engages us in an interesting visual “conversation” in which subject and object (inspiration and creation) are compared and two-dimensional and three-dimensional art (painting and sculpture) are contrasted.
Vertical Lines 2
Jessica Loughlin (Autralian, b. 1975)
United States, Portland, Oregon, Bullseye Glass, 2002
Kiln-formed
2003.4.25, gift in part of Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser, and The Greenberg Foundation, and Robert Cole Jr. and E. Marie McKee
Drifting between surfaces, between the private interior, between the eternal landscape, at one in a still place. My work aims to evoke the simplicity of space and bring together my private internal space with the vast external space of our land.— Jessica Loughlin
Jessica Loughlin uses simple sculptural forms, often partly covered with text, to explore concepts of landscape and time, focusing on the undefined space where land and sky meet.
Vertical Lines 2 is the largest work that Loughlin has attempted. With its quiet color and balanced forms, this sculpture communicates a feeling of infinity, or perhaps a memory of serenity. The long vertical ribs, which gradually disappear, are like the eternal line of the horizon, conveying a sense of endless time.
Blackcoater
Ivan Mareš (Czech, b. 1956)
Czechoslovakia, Železný Brod, 1989
Mold-melted and cut
92.3.12
An obscure, abstract sculpture that appears almost batlike, Blackcoater has an intentionally rough, primitive surface that has received minimal grinding and polishing.
Here, Ivan Mareš explores ideas of opacity and transparency, qualities that are characteristic of glass. The thickest parts of the sculpture are a nearly opaque purple that absorbs light. As the glass becomes thinner toward the edges, the color lightens and becomes transparent, like the water at the edge of a pond.
Chartreuse Pair
Dante Marioni (American, b. 1964)
United States, Seattle, Washington, 1997
Blown glass
2001.4.238, gift of Mike and Annie Belkin
Dante Marioni is the most influential member of a new generation of American studio glass artists who work in original and inventive ways with traditional Venetian glassblowing and decorating techniques. One of the forms in this Pair is the becco di oca (goose beak) pitcher, a popular Italian shape with an ancient heritage. The footed cup is derived from the shape of the ancient Greek kylix, a two-handled ceramic drinking vessel.
Marquiscarpa #26
Richard Marquis (American, b. 1945)
United States, Puget Sound, Washington, 1992
Fused and blown murrine, cut, assembled
93.4.90, part gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Ruth T. Summers, and the artist
Unsatisfied with the limited techniques practiced and taught in American studio glass in the 1960s, studio glass pioineer Richard Marquis went to the Venini glassworks on Murano in 1969. There, he observed and worked with some of the most talented glass masters in the world. He later shared his knowledge of historic Italian techniques, such as murrine(mosaic) and filigrana (filigree), by demonstrating and teaching at workshops throughout the United States and Australia.
This murrine vessel, called a Marquiscarpa, was named in honor of the renowned Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa (1906–1978). Scarpa's most famous designs in murrine were produced at the Venini glassworks from 1932 to 1940.
Untitled (White)
Josiah McElheny (American, b. 1966)
United States, Seattle, Washington, 2000
Blown, cased, and cut; display cabinet, lighting
2000.4.9, the 15th Rakow Commission
Josiah McElheny is an accomplished glassblower with a profound respect for the traditions and history of the craft. He creates installations of glass objects that are inspired by art or glass history, often using a specific historical or literary anecdote as a point of departure. His objects are often presented with slightly or heavily fictionalized, pseudo-historical narratives, or accompanied by poems or selected quotations. His installations do not merely contextualize his glass objects, but are thoughtful compositions on the history of art, glassblowing, the making of objects, philosophy, and story.
More recently, the artist has put aside words in favor of the narrative that is generated by juxtaposed forms. Untitled (White) pays tribute to Modernism and the history of 20th-century glass design. McElheny's choice of color—a brilliant white—and purposeful lack of title refer to Modernist concepts of purity, spareness, and simplicity. The objects, displayed in a reproduction of a 1950s International Style cabinet, honor internationally recognized designers who have influenced McElheny.
The glass, from left to right, reproduces famous designs by Tapio Wirkkala (Finnish, 1915–1985), Fulvio Bianconi (Italian, 1915–1996), Gunnel Nyman (Finnish, 1909–1948), Vittorio Zecchin (Italian, 1878–1947, two objects), Oswald Haerdtl (Austrian, 1899–1959), Josef Hoffmann (Austrian,1870–1956), Paolo Venini (Italian, 1895–1959), Vicke Lindstrand (Swedish, 1904–1983), Nils Landberg (Swedish, 1907–1991, two objects), Tyra Lundgren (Swedish,1897–1979), Gio Ponti (Italian, 1891–1979), and Venini. Some of the designs that inspired McElheny may be seen in the Modern Gallery.
Niijima 10/99-B1
Klaus Moje (German, b. 1936)
With the assistance of Scott Chaseling and Kirstie Rea
Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 1999
Kiln-formed and blown glass
99.6.8, the 14th Rakow Commission
Klaus Moje, an internationally known artist and influential teacher, pioneered studio glass in Europe and later in Australia, where he founded an important university program in glass at the Canberra School of Art.
Moje, who moved from Germany to Australia in the early 1980s, was profoundly influenced by the colors of his new landscape. He began to make abstract paintings in fused glass, which were left as panels or “rolled up” onto a blowpipe and formed into vessels. The “Niijima” series of vessels was begun at the well-known glass school on the island of Niijima in Japan.
Nostalgia
Yoichi Ohira (Japanese, b. 1946)
With the assistance of Livio Serena and Giacomo Barbini
Italy, Murano, 2001
Fused, blown, cased, and cut; colored powders, inlays
2001.3.18, the 16th Rakow Commission
Yoichi Ohira is inspired by the vivid colors of Venetian glass and the quiet, restrained forms of Japanese decorative arts. This trio of vessels consists of three forms that represent different elements of the Japanese landscape: “Crater,” “Lake,” and “Waterfall.” In this work, fused canes, patterned murrine, and inlays are picked up on the blowpipe and blown. Colored glass powders are added during the blowing process. Cratere displays the type of murrine that is known as corazza della tartaruga (turtle carapace). The blue glass surfaces of Lago and Cascata are lightly cut in the battuto technique to suggest the movement and reflection of light on water.
Clear Lumina with Azurlite
Thomas Patti (American, b. 1943)
United States, Plainfield, Massachusetts, 1992
Fused and hot-formed
94.4.1, purchased with funds from The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, The Creative Glass Center of America, the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family, and Carl H. Pforzheimer III
A widely respected artist and studio glass pioneer, Thomas Patti has devoted much of his career to researching special glasses and hot-forming techniques. The horizontal layers of color mimic the progression of color in the landscape as it changes from the darker tones of the earth to the increasingly paler blues of the sky.
Woven Heaven, Tangled Earth
Susan Plum (Mexican, b. 1944)
United States, Brooklyn, New York, 1999
Flameworked
2001.4.70
For Susan Plum, glass is a metaphor for light and a way to “concretize the invisible.” She uses borosilicate glass exclusively for its high silica content and its strength. Woven Heaven, Tangled Earth was inspired by her research into ancient Mesoamerican cosmological systems.
Plum writes: “The woven work in glass that I have done over the last several years was originally inspired by the Mayan goddess Ixchel, the first weaver of the Americas. I later discovered that Mayan and other Mesoamerican traditions use the weaver's loom as a metaphor for the universe. The loom of the universe is believed to be constructed of filaments of light from which the Heavens and Earth are said to be woven. These woven strands of light can become entangled around the Earth, and it is the job of Mayan shamans to untangle this ‘discord.' Thus, the act of weaving, for the Maya, symbolically rebuilds and re-energizes the world.”
Hollow Torso
Clifford Rainey (Irish, b. 1948)
United States, Oakland, California, 1997
Cast
2001.4.19, gift of the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family
This female torso, constructed from 13 individually cast sections, symbolizes the transience of the physical body. It is one of a series of torsos by Clifford Rainey that addresses the body and time.
Although the torso appears strong, even armored, it is still vulnerable, a shell that can be broken. The gray-black pigment rubbed into the surface—the color of X-ray film—underscores the body's fragility and susceptibility to things that we cannot see.
Never twice the same (Tlingit storage box)
Preston Singletary (American, b. 1964)
United States, Seattle, Washington, 2003
Cast glass, waterjet-cut, cut, sandblasted, assembled
2003.4.83, the 18th Rakow Commission
Preston Singletary is descended from a Tlingit clan of southeastern Alaska, and his work is imbued with the sophisticated and vibrant artistic traditions of the Northwest Coast. Singletary studies ancient Native American designs made in traditional materials, such as cedar, shell, and bone, and he re-creates them in a modern, nontraditional medium: glass.
Never twice the same is full-scale in relation to a traditional Tlingit cedar box. The decoration is a formline design with no particular meaning; it is intended to be aesthetically pleasing. The use of nonspecific formline designs was traditionally employed when an object was made for trade, and when it would not be appropriate to give away a design that belonged to a specific family or clan.
Hopi
Lino Tagliapietra (Italian, b. 1934)
United States, Seattle, Washington, 1996
Blown filigrana
96.4.166, the 11th Rakow Commission
Lino Tagliapietra has had a lasting impact on American studio glassblowing. Born on the island of Murano, he worked as an assistant and then as an apprentice in the island's glass factories, where he earned the title of maestro at the age of 21. In 1979, he traveled for the first time to the United States to teach at the Pilchuck Glass School. This was the beginning of an international career and collaborations with noted European and American artists working in glass.
After working in the United States and abroad for 10 years, Tagliapietra made the difficult decision to change his artistic focus from design to the production of unique work. Rethinking his craft, he emerged in the 1990s as an influential artist.
In recent years, Tagliapietra has divided his studio time between Seattle and Murano. Hopi is inspired by the indigenous art of the American Southwest. Tagliapietra believes that Native American art has made an important and unique contribution to American culture. Hopi's bold and contrasting colors, broad-shouldered forms, and intricate surface patterns recall the Native American ceramics, basketry, and textiles that Tagliapietra admires.
Unknown Destination II
Bertil Vallien (Swedish, b. 1938)
With the assistance of William Morris and Norman Courtney
United States, Stanwood, Washington, Pilchuck Glass School, 1986
Sand cast with hot-worked inclusions
87.4.19
A sea of thoughts and memories. An oasis of hopes—poetic spaces. Becalmed. Nourishment for the imagination, our most valuable capital asset. —Bertil Vallien
Bertil Vallien is the most widely-recognized and admired artist working in glass in Sweden today. Like many Swedish studio artists, he has pursued a career designing for industry in addition to maintaining an independent practice. He is also a well-traveled teacher who has influenced an entire generation of artists working in glass in Europe and abroad.
Sand casting—that is, pouring molten glass into a prepared bed of sand to create a form—is a technique that Vallien pioneered in the 1980s. He is perhaps best known for his sand-cast boats, such as Unknown Destination II, and his heads, which reflect the larger themes of journeys, memory, and time. Elements of archeology (re-creations of artifacts), water (palette), and states of consciousness, such as suspended animation (the immobilization of objects in glass), are also evident in his work.
Gyes Arcade
Christopher Wilmarth (American, 1943–1987)
United States, New York, New York, 1969
Commercial plate glass, cut, slumped, acid-etched and assembled
2000.4.53, purchased in honor of Susanne K. Frantz with funds provided by the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family; Roger G. and Maureen Ackerman Family; James R. and Maisie Houghton; The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass; The Carbetz Foundation; The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation; Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser, and The Greenberg Foundation; Polly and John Guth; and The Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation
I associate the significant moments of my life with the character of the light at the time. . . . My sculptures are places to generate this experience; compressed into light and shadow. . . [I] return them to the world as a physical poem. —Christopher Wilmarth
Christopher Wilmarth was an American sculptor internationally recognized for his poetic work in glass and steel. In his sculpture, glass is used as a solid manifestation of light.
Gyes Arcade is an arrangement of flat and curved commercial plate glass elements that are cut, acid-etched, stacked, and balanced. These elements form an abstract floor composition that both reflects light (clear elements) and absorbs it (etched elements). Other contradictions are apparent in the glass itself (the material's strength and fragility) and in the composition of the sculpture (seemingly casual but complicated to assemble).
In 1969, glass was rarely seen in contemporary art, especially in large-scale sculpture. However, the American Studio Glass movement was gathering national momentum. Many studio glass artists looked at contemporary sculpture, such as Gyes Arcade , for inspiration on how glass might be treated artistically. Gyes Arcade reflects an important period in 20th-century abstract art. It also preserves a critical moment in 20th-century glass, an intensely creative time of experimentation and exploration in the radical uses of glass for art.
Double Face
Ann Wolff (German, b. 1937)
Germany, Berlin, 1999
Antique sheet glass, enameled; steel frame
2004.3.11
An acclaimed designer and studio artist, Ann Wolff has spent most of her adult life living and working in Transjö, Sweden. For many years, she designed for the Kosta Boda glassworks, during which time she also pursued an independent career as a studio artist.
The subject of Wolff's blown and engraved bowls and cast sculptures is the life of women, and her work rarely strays from that exploration. The relationships between women as friends, and as mothers and daughters, and the role of women in society deeply concern her. Wolff writes: “It is natural to take oneself as one's starting point. The situation of women partly determines who I am and leads me to pose particular questions.”
Several years ago, Wolff took up part-time residence in Berlin. There she began a new series of women's portraits, to which Double Face belongs. These portraits are made by painting on individual glass sheets and then layering the sheets, as in a collage.
Libertà (Liberty)
Toots Zynsky (American, b. 1951)
United States, Providence, Rhode Island, 2004
Fused filet du verre (glass thread)
2004.4.28, gift in part of the family of Laura R. Houghton
Toots Zynsky began to develop her unique technique of “painting” with colored glass threads in the early 1980s. First, the thousands of multicolored threads that make up her vessels are layered onto a round metal plate. This mass of glass threads is fused inside a kiln and cooled. The fused threads are then turned over, and the outer surface of the vessel is exposed. If Zynsky likes the composition, she will complete the piece through two or more kiln firings in which the stiff mass of fused threads is heated and allowed to slowly sag over a cone-shaped mold. When the glass has softened, Zynsky reaches into the kiln, wearing asbestos gloves, and she pinches and squeezes the glass into its final form.
There are 49 artists currently represented in the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass:
Larry Bell
Howard Ben Tré
Nicole Chesney
Dale Chihuly
Václav Cigler
Bernard Dejonghe
Mel Douglas
Erwin Eisch
Bert Frijns
Mieke Groot
Dorothy Hafner
Judy Hill
Dafna Kaffeman
Marian Karel
Therese Lahaie
Karen LaMonte
Silvia Levenson
|
Stanislav Libenský and
Jaroslava Brychtová
Beth Lipman
Marvin Lipofsky
Jessica Loughlin
Ivan Mares
Dante Marioni
Richard Marquis
Josiah McElheny
Klaus Moje
Benjamin Moore
Jay Musler
Yoichi Ohira
Thomas Patti
Susan Plum
Clifford Rainey
Kait Rhoads
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Ann Robinson
Michael Rogers
Ginny Ruffner
Alessandro Diaz de Santillana
Laura de Santillana
Michael Scheiner
Preston Singletary
Lino Tagliapietra
Pavel Trnka
Dana Vachtová
Bertil Vallien
Jack Wax
Christopher Wilmarth
Ann Wolff
Toots Zynsky |