Raoul Goldini

On the World Crafts Council 6 held in Mexico 1976

1976 Raoul Goldini:

..."First of all, I think that many mistakes, wanderings and dead ends, many failures, flamboyant excesses and banal servility to market demands could be avoided if the old truth were repected [sic] regarding relations between craftsmanship and the artistic work of art.

Naturally, craftsmanship does not always have to result in artistic products--such ambitions to produce art at any cost have even made some handicraft products ridiculous. But it is also true that every art contains in itself a craft component and the knowledge of this craft is the 'conditio sine qua non' in art. Therefore, without recognition of work in the creation, and without recognition of the tradition of shaping, the creation is in a vacuum of mere ephmerality; it does not and it cannot become that part of the artistic tradition which surpasses the dubious popularity of the moment and which endures beyond its time as part of the spiritual inheritance of the human conception of the world. In that sense, it is indespensible to reaffirm craftsmanship, and the profession if you wish, because it is the only way to overcome and conquer both the craft and mere professionalism of the profession...

...many fashionable and mainly snobbish contemporary producers think that their contemporaneity and revolutionarism are most clearly manifested in the complete denial of any tradition, and therefore they 'rebelliously' refuse any 'old-fashioned' form and even the conception of art itself which is, ostensibly, connected to a former vanished world which was petrified while insisting on the traditional demands of a world long dead. However, the esssential mistake of these 'innovators' is in their inability to see that the tradition cannot be overcome by being belowabove its universal and artistic horizon.

...one can become a part of the tradition only when one has overcome it and not while living in its shadow. One becomes a part of the tradition while creating something new. But this--if it wants to be really and not only apparently new--has to be new in relation to something that already existed in the tradition, it has to start from the objectives achieved in order to surpass them.

This ability to surpass, this longing for the new and the unknown is not an unimportant matter... This is the essential longing to which the whole talent and the whole personality of the artist are directed, all the riches of his enthusiasm.

...The relationship with the artistic tradition is the relationship corresponding to the creativity which has always been in its essence the denial of mere living and existence, which was 'a slap in the face of existence' (Camus), even when it seemed only a realistic reflection and image of this world. Therefore, the positive relationship with tradition (which at the same time means the possibility of a serious surpassing of tradition) is the genuine and not verbal revolutionary relationship with the existing world which only art will make suitable for man to find the reason for his existence in it." (31, 32)

Goldini, R. in Glass volume 5 number 3, "World Craft Council, report on the glass workshop", April 1977, published in Portland, OR.

1976

In this time line I pull quotes to illustrate a thread in popular and scholarly writing and criticism about glass. Here we will see current glass artists defending their art against the accusations and separating themselves from these stereotypes and, hopefully, find out how and where the now-common opinion was born. Fundamentally, the general thesis seems to be born of the question, What Is Art? This question I will leave to others to answer, here I am only documenting the written history of a popular way of thinking and a popular taste.

1976 Glass Art Magazine:Glass Art Magazine. Volume 4, No. 3. 1976

Glass Art Magazine. "Jimmy Carter lusts after glass donkey." Volume 4, number 4. 1976.

1976 Fred Martin:

Robert Kehlmann: “Robert Kehlmann distributes his material on the diagonal, and makes his pictures of line and area, like greatly expanded scribble sketches. That they do not integrate the format makes them small random cutouts from a larger work; that they are not the larger work itself makes them unimportant. That they are excellently made in glass, a medium which requires every care for every part, makes all the time and material even more sad a waste.”

“Among the other artists in this show, Narcissus Quagliata is a frenzied Romantic/Surrealist--and his book, as his work, strives to break beyond the limits. His works grasp at the preposterous and haul us into experiences beyond the picture, where mind does indeed become light: The Opal Dance after the Earthquake, androgynous, half womb and half phallus, made partly of flesh but mostly of bone….”

“When all the questions of form, content and medium are over, I think any medium is a parameter of the artist’s expression, but what is made of it is the result of the artist’s soul. (Soul is the detritus of experience burning in the flames of aspiration.) So, to rank these artists and pin on a board the squirming, human butterflies: Marioni is technically amusing but without ideas or experiences of any great value. Posner is the same, although he does make people giggle in a small way. Kehlmann proves that the drift of experience in a small scale may be less interesting than experience itself; he should make them room size. Barnett has a superb, clear vision of the luminosity of glass, the necessary pattern of lead and steel, and a green egg which will not be forgotten. Quagliata is becoming, I think, one of the driving, creative forces in the medium, expanding the physical parameters of stained glass to accommodate the spiritual expansion of his soul.”

“Six artists working with glass” Fred Martin Berkeley, December 4, 1976. Artweek, west coast, vol. 7, no 42. P. 4

1976 Artweek:

“George Jercich: Arnica, Glass Triton Museum, Santa Clara

“Working with blown glass in a sculptural manner, George Jercich creates combinations of brilliantly colored biomorphic shapes which convey a sense of movement and growth. His pieces, although measuring less than two feet in any direction have a monumentality, a quality that Jercich hopes to explore in future works intended for architectural settings.”

Artweek. May 15, 1976. vol 7. no 20. west coast. pg 6.

1976 Richard Ritter:"Family Portrait" Ritter, Richard. 1976, Penland, NC. Corning Museum of Glass. 76.4.15 Photo ABJ 2008.

1976 David Williard:

"Wall Hanging Sculpture" David Willard. 1976, Doylestown Pennsylvania. 76.4.31 @ Corning Museum of Art. ABJ photo, 2008.