Showing posts with label marvin lipofsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marvin lipofsky. Show all posts

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Marvin Lipofsky @ Micaela Gallery, SF (reviews)

Photo courtesy Marvin Lipofsky.

2009 Kathryn Arnold and DeWitt Cheng:

"Micaela Gallery: Marvin Lipofsky - Survey, 1969 2009.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Marvin Lipofsky handles glass and color with the ease a painter might handle paint on a canvas-- an analogy pointing to the supreme technical skill this artist exhibits. His organic shapes at times resemble shell-like formations and point to inside/outside interior/exterior relationships. If glass was not such a fragile material, the sensation of wanting to pick these up hold them squish them would be almost unbearable. Candy-like colors are reminiscent of those seen in the depths of the ocean (National Geographic has educated me in this regard) so perhaps one can touch upon primordial beginnings. Yet they are what they are-- each shape also referencing itself without allusions to the outside world. Luminous objects of 'being' in most cases.

Review by DeWitt Cheng: Berkeley's Marvin Lipofsky is an eminent glass artist, having helped pioneer the medium back in the 1960s. This show assembles work of the past four decades. Organic/complex form, plus ravishing color-- a must-see for those who admired the Chihuly extravaganza at the DeYoung. I take several pix of the artist, whose sense of humor I enjoy, but seem to have lost them somehow.

Comment by AB: Glassmaking at it's finest. Highly recommended. Pick of First Thursday."

Arnold, K., DeWitt C. "San Francisco Art Gallery Openings, Second Thursday." Accessed October 18, 2009. http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/firstth0909a.html

Monday, October 12, 2009

Marvin Lipofsky @ Micaela Gallery, SF

Here's the ad in Art in America for Micaela Gallery's current Marvin Lipofsky show down in S.F.


Photo Credit: M. Lee Fatherree
Art in America, September 2009.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

2003 part two

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.

2003 The Times of India:
"HYDERABAD: Glass sculptures created by Sisir Sahana are on display for three days from August 25 at the L V Prasad Eye Hospital Art Gallery.
The sculptor has compressed, fused, moulded and melted glass of all sizes and shapes to form faces, birds and trees.
Sahana said he has used a technique known as 'casting' wherein glass made from sand, potash and other raw materials is framed around painted glass.
The sculptor has also used a 'fusion' technique to melt coloured glass pieces into representations of birds and trees. "I have attempted to represent life and forms in a realistic manner,'' Sisir Sahana said.
Also on display are his acrylic paintings that showcase the harsh realities of life. In one of the paintings, for instance, farmers are shown working in the fields even as highways encroach upon the fields.
Selected sculptures are on sale and interested art lovers can purchase them for Rs.16,000 and more."
"Mirroring life through glass sculptures." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. 2003. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-24208954_ITM
2003 Cheryl Petten:
"
When most of us think of Native American art, works created from glass aren't usually what first comes to mind. But a visit to an exhibit being hosted by the Heard Museum in Phoenix this summer could change that.
Fusing Traditions: Transformations in Glass By Native American Artists opened at the museum in April, and runs until the end of August. The exhibit features the work of 18 Native artists from across North America, some of whom have been working in the medium as early as the 1960s and 1970s.
While exhibits in the past have looked at the work of individual Native glass artists, this exhibit is the first to provide an overview of Native glass art as an art movement. The exhibit was put together by co-curators Carolyn Kastner and Roslyn Tunis, who met through happenstance and a mutual interest in Native glass art.
Kastner, curator of the Museum of Craft & Folk Art in San Francisco, explained how the exhibit came about.
"The most mature artists in this exhibition have been working for more than 20 years. And yet no one had ever put an exhibition together that looked at the history of how all these people came to work in glass," she said. "And so in the summer of 2000, I began to gather information to work on this based on my knowledge of a few artists, primarily coming out of the southwest, that I knew about. And when I began to ask around here in the San Francisco Bay area, someone said to me, 'Are you working with Roslyn Tunis on her glass show?' And I was just floored. Because in 20 years, nobody had done this, and now somebody's telling me somebody else is doing this. So we met, and she had a similar epiphany on a trip to Haines, Alaska, and she saw an exhibit of primarily northwest and Alaskan artists in Haines at a small gallery there. And she had been thinking the same thing."
Tunis, an independent curator, had been focusing on the work of Preston Singletary, a glass artist of Tlingit ancestry, who grew up in Seattle, while Kastner's focus had been on the work of Tony Jojola, an artist from the Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico.
"So we had these sort of two points, with Tony Jojola, who does really very free and open work, and Preston Singletary, who's very detailed and elaborate in the kinds of work he produced. And they're like the two poles of this kind of artistic production at this point in time," Kastner explained.
Singletary came on board the project, serving as a consulting curator to the exhibit.
"Sort of keeping us on track about the sensitivity to the Native traditions and that kind of thing."
What Singletary also did was introduce Kastner and Tunis to the next generation of glass artists. Students in their 20s who are learning glass art from Singletary and Jojola.
One of the ways in which the newest generation of glass artists differs from the artists who have been working in the medium for some time is in the approach they take in combining glass with their Native culture.
Whereas the older artists, those in their 30s and 40s, faced more resistance and more limitations on what they could create, the younger artists are approaching their art with more freedom, explained Kastner.
"For instance, Tony Jojola had difficulties. He's from Isleta Pueblo and his pueblo rejected the medium, and when he tried to open a school there, they didn't want a glass school, because it wasn't traditional," she said. "So with these new, younger generations, they didn't have any of that political limitation, or hesitation. They just embraced glass and their Native culture, and they are making things that are extraordinary, and not limited in any way."
One artist whose works demonstrates this freedom to combine the medium and the culture is Robert Tannahill, a Metis artist of Mohawk and Scottish descent, who has created a series of blown glass figures he has called the False Face series.
"He has blown glass into a wooden cylinder, and what happens then, he's burned out some holes, and it allows the glass to expand outside of the wood, and actually burns and chars the wood at the same time .... He's Mohawk, and in the Mohawk tradition, masks are carved on the tree, and then at a certain point when the mask is done, it's taken off, it's cut away from the living tree. But it's carved, actually, on the tree before it's removed. It's not created from a plank of wood. So the artists were doing a couple of things. One is they were creating really ferocious masks that were meant to scare people, to terrify people, and they were used for ritual purposes. And when you look at Robert Tannahill's pieces, they're grotesque, and the glass flows out of these holes and gravity works on it. And so you can see all the characteristics of glass ... it's not using it in another way, it's allowing the glass to just show its properties, to expand and to drip and to do things like that. But it's also similar, not in its look, to the old false face mask, but in his way of working with contingencies and natural imperfections in the same way that the Mohawk carver would have originally done on the tree. Because once you start carving into a tree, you open the tree up and then there are knotholes and things you didn't know about, and the artist would work around those and they would become part of the mask. And that's what Robert Tanahill is doing," she said.
"He's creating art, and he's doing that on his own, because at the same time, he refers to the series as autobiographical. In the series, he uses names like a ghost from my grandmother's basement, and things like that. So that it's taken completely out of the realm of the sacred, and he's working from a concept, which is this false face, scary mask that's carved from nature, but it doesn't look a thing like it. So the point is that there are no limits, both on his artistic intention, because he's inventing new ways of working with glass, and at the very same time, he's not being limited by the traditions of the false face."
In addition to the works of Jojola, Singletary and Tannahill, the exhibit also features Choctaw artist Marcus Amerman, who uses glass beads to create portraits of contemporary figures such as Brooke Shields and Janet Jackson, and Coast Salish artist Susan Point, for whom glass is but one of the many mediums in which she works.
The works of C.S. Tarpley are also featured in the exhibit. Tarpley, who lists Choctaw, Chickasaw and Anglo as his heritage, recreates traditional pottery forms in blown glass, then employs his experience as a goldsmith and lapidary, sandblasting decorations into the glass surface, then electroplating it with metal.
Other artists in the exhibit include Salish artist Ed Archie NoiseCat, Navajo artist Conrad House, Hopi artist Ramson Lomatewama, Quinalt artist Martin Oliver, Inupiat artist Larry Ahvakana, Salish artist Shaun Peterson, Alaskan Native artist John Hagen, Tlingit artist Clarissa Hudson, Nuu-chanulth artist Joe David, Pawnee artist Brian Barber, Siberian Y'upic artist Michael Carius, and Tlingit artist Wayne Price.
The Fusing Traditions exhibit originally opened at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art in September 2002, and then traveled to Los Angeles, where it appeared at the Los Angeles Museum of Craft and Folk Art before coming to the Heard Museum. After its run in Phoenix, the exhibit will be at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History before heading to Alaska. The exhibit will open at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in February 2004, and will travel to the Alaska State Museum in Juneau in May 2004.
For more information about the exhibit, contact the Heard Museum at 602-252-8840, or visit the museum's Web site at www.heard.org."
Petten, Cheryl. "Exhibit explores work of native glass artists. (All My Relations)." Windspeaker. Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA). June 1, 2003. AccessMyLibrary. 5 Nov. 2009. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-23634044_ITM
2003 C.R. Roberts:
"
The virtues and distinctions of Tacoma were once compared to the likes of Spokane, Portland and Seattle.
Times change. Cities grow.
In this month's issue of the upscale Conde Nast Traveler, Tacoma finds its match alongside Bangkok, Riyadh, Innsbruck and Fuji City.
In the fourth installment of the magazine's annual look at consequential architecture worldwide -- in an article called "The Next Seven Wonders of the World" -- Tacoma's Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art earns a two-page spread.
Featuring one fine photograph.
There's the silver-scaled cone reflected in a pool of bobbing apples. There's the suspension bridge seemingly tethered at one end by the curved roof of the Tacoma Dome. There's Thea Foss Waterway below a soft blue sky.
"When you have a picture like that, it makes a tremendous impact. It's something people will remember," said Julie Gangler, director of public relations at the Tacoma Regional Convention & Visitor Bureau.
"That's the foremost travel magazine in the country, it's the most highly regarded," she said.
She said a mention such as this one can have a positive effect -- one that can be measured in prestige as well as counted in tourist dollars.
"People will clip it and save it. We'll have people show up clutching the article. It's the sort of thing, down the road, that will continue to produce tourism," Gangler said.
Articles such as this "definitely validate Tacoma. It makes us look like we have a world-class museum. And we do."
Conde Nast Traveler is not the only national publication looking at Tacoma this month.
Metropolis Magazine, prestigious among architects and designers nationwide, focuses eight pages of its April attention on several Tacoma projects, including the Tacoma Art Museum, University of Washington Tacoma and Union Station, as well as the glass museum.
"(T)he City of Destiny has pursued an ambitious center-city redevelopment strategy stressing new arts and educational institutions, cultural tourism and a degree of historic preservation," the article says.
Arthur Erickson's glass museum is "strong, lucid ... a retreat from his recent Post-Modern essays and a return to his Modernist roots." Antoine Predock's Tacoma Art Museum is "subtly detailed."
And a Seattle designer is heard to say, "Seattle's renaissance is in Tacoma."
"Our goal is to create a buzz about Tacoma," said Becky Japhet of the city's Economic Development Department.
Hers is the office that has created an advertising campaign to promote Tacoma among the business leaders of surrounding counties, attempting to court them into relocating here.
"The more you raise Tacoma's visibility, the better it is," she said. "The word is getting out."
Had the city bought an equivalent amount of advertising since 1999, it would have spent $1,045,797, the city department estimates. That's how much space Tacoma has received in publications ranging from The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times to Asahi Shimbun in Japan and Tekniika & Talous in Finland.
At Conde Nast Traveler, spokesman Jon Buchmeyer said nominations for the Seven Wonders feature are submitted from "world-leading design and architectural firms."
Nominations "span the gamut of architecture, coming from the ones who know what's going on, what's cool."
Tacoma may be cool in April, but what about tomorrow?
Ruthie Reinert, head of the convention and visitor bureau, is looking toward June.
April may have seen the area featured in Conde Nast Traveler and Metropolis -- and even in Courier Magazine, aimed at members of the National Tour Association -- but Reinert has begun thinking about early summer.
That's when a band of travel writers will visit the city for a gathering of the American Society of Travel Writers.
"Sweep the street and plant the pansies," Reinert said.
They're on their way."
Roberts, C.R. "World-Class Publications Take Note of Tacoma, Wash., Resurgence." Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2003. AccessMyLibrary. 5 Nov. 2009 published April 4, 2003. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-6078351_ITM



2003 Jen Graves:
"
Eighteen months after he arrived and six months after the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art opened, chief curator Neil Watson is leaving.
He'll depart at the end of the month to become director of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, where he said colleagues interested in his work contacted him in late summer, not long after the Museum of Glass opened.
Watson was in Tacoma 18 months. He organized "Some Assembly Required," the group show that's up now.
"This was a hard choice," said 49-year-old Watson.
He has been curating at museums for less than a decade and this is his first chance to run a museum rather than simply manage exhibitions. And the Connecticut native and his wife want their infant daughter closer to their East Coast families.
"I have always had a wonderful time here, but we did have that Lou Piniella syndrome where it was far from everything for us," Watson said.
When museum director Josi Callan will begin the search for an artistic leader is unclear. Callan will use guest curators to fill in this year's schedule, Watson said.
Callan was unavailable for comment Saturday.
"We're taking a look at strategic vision and that will include curatorial," said museum spokeswoman Julie Pisto.
Watson is not a glass specialist, though he briefly studied with Dale Chihuly in the 1970s while earning a printmaking degree at Rhode Island School of Design.
After graduating, he was an illustrator for Atlantic Monthly and Houghton Mifflin before becoming a painter.
Established galleries in San Francisco and New York sold his abstracted landscape paintings in the 1980s. For the first half of the 1990s, Watson managed a SoHo gallery.
With his connections, the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida in 1995 hired him as curator of contemporary art. A year later, he went to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, where he was contemporary art curator for five years.
At the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts -- a smaller, non-collecting space with galleries and 26 artists' studios -- Watson can work closely with artists.
"I came out of the studio and I feel more affinity with that," he said.
He enjoyed a good relationship with Callan that he hopes to continue in exchanges from his new post, he said: "I really loved working with her. She's a strong director."
Contemporary art in all mediums is Watson's true love.
"I was hired (in Tacoma) because I was a curator of contemporary art, not a curator of glass," he said.
Two other staff members who helped the museum open departed last month, Pisto said: a new store manager and security director are already on board."
Graves, J. "Tacoma, Wa. Glass museum curator takes new job." January 12, 2003. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2003. AccessMyLibrary. 5 Nov. 2009 http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7943080_ITM


2003 MetNews:
"
A California glass artist cannot copyright his lifelike glass-in-glass jellyfish sculptures because they are not sufficiently distinctive, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
The panel overturned a preliminary injunction granted last year by U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell of the Eastern District of California.
Burrell enjoined Christopher Lowry, a Hawaii artist, from making or selling sculptures with “a vertically oriented, colorful, fanciful jellyfish with tendril-like tentacles and a rounded bell encased in an outer layer of rounded clear glass that is bulbous at the top and tapering toward the bottom to form roughly a bullet shape, with the jellyfish portion of the sculpture filling almost the entire volume of the outer, clear glass shroud.”
The judge ruled that Lowry’s sculptures appeared to breach several copyrights registered by Richard Satava. Lowry admitted that saw a picture of Satava’s sculptures in a magazine in 1996 and that a customer brought him a Satava sculpture to repair in 1997.
It was undisputed that Satava started making the sculptures, products of a centuries-old art form, several years before Lowry began making his.
But Judge Ronald Gould, writing yesterday for the Ninth Circuit, said Satava could not obtain copyright protection for his works because they were not “original” works within the meaning of the Copyright Act.
The originality requirement, the judge explains, means that ideas, or “expressions that are standard, stock, or common to a particular subject matter or medium are not protectable under copyright law.”
The judge elaborated:
“Satava may not prevent others from depicting jellyfish with tendril-like tentacles or rounded bells, because many jellyfish possess those body parts. He may not prevent others from depicting jellyfish in bright colors, because many jellyfish are brightly colored. He may not prevent others from depicting jellyfish swimming vertically, because jellyfish swim vertically in nature and often are depicted swimming vertically—.
“Satava may not prevent others from depicting jellyfish within a clear outer layer of glass, because clear glass is the most appropriate setting for an aquatic animal—.He may not prevent others from depicting jellyfish ‘almost filling the entire volume’ of the outer glass shroud, because such proportion is standard in glass-in-glass sculpture. And he may not prevent others from tapering the shape of their shrouds, because that shape is standard in glass-in-glass sculpture.”
Gould acknowledged that a combination of unprotectable elements, taken together, might be something original and thus entitled to protection. But that is not the case with Satava’s sculptures, he said.
“The selection of the clear glass, oblong shroud, bright colors, proportion, vertical orientation, and stereotyped jellyfish form, considered together, lacks the quantum of originality needed to merit copyright protection,” Gould wrote.
The judge noted that the panel had looked at dozens of photographs of glass-in-glass jellyfish sculptures, and said in a footnote that they were basically similar, with each artist adding or omitting some standard element. The court would be allowing Satava “to fence off private reserves from within the public domain” if it allowed him copyright protection, Gould declared.
Judge Barry G. Silverman and Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner, a visiting jurist from Philadelphia, concurred.
The case is Satava v. Lowry, 02-16347."
Unknown. MetNews Staff Writer. "Panel rejects copyright protection for jellyfish sculptures." March 21, 2003. Metropolitan News Empire. acc. November 2, 2009. http://www.metnews.com/articles/sata032103.htm
2003:

"
"Marvin Lipofsky: A Glass Odyssey"
2003-07-19 until 2003-10-12
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland, CA, USA

A translucent pink bubble punctured by a tube of clear red glass, a multicolored primordial glass form, a sinuous two-foot-long purple tube of flocked glass ending in a bulb that looks strangely sensual -- these are just three of the approximately 60 works that will be on display in the exhibition Marvin Lipofsky: A Glass Odyssey, at the Oakland Museum of California from July 19 to Oct. 12, 2003. This retrospective exhibition spans the 40-year career of Berkeley artist Marvin Lipofsky, founder of the California studio glass movement and one of the world's best-known glass artists.
The early works in the exhibition are simple bubble and bottle forms. In the 1970s, Lipofsky began working with subjects from popular culture, evidenced in the humorous "Great American Food Series," where pickles and hamburgers were fashioned of glass. In the "California Loop Series," Lipofsky created sensuous forms with flocking and plated glass surfaces. The pieces for which he is best known today are the three-dimensional globe-shaped forms he has made in many variations at glass factories the world over. These sculptural forms are most often semi-opaque on the outside, inviting the viewer to explore their inner dimensions.
Studio glass, or glass sculpture, was made in Czechoslovakian factories as early as the 1950s. It was pioneered in the United States in the early 1960s by artist Harvey Littleton, one of Lipofsky's teachers when he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lipofsky received a Master of Science degree in 1963 and an M.F.A. in sculpture in 1964 from the University of Wisconsin.
After graduation Lipofsky joined the faculty of UC Berkeley, where he established the second studio glass program in the country. In 1967 he founded the glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. The work of Lipofsky and his students during the 1960s and '70s made the San Francisco Bay Area one of the centers of the early studio glass movement. "Cutting-edge talent," said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown recently, "that was Lipofsky's gift to the world."
In 1970, Lipofsky began a global odyssey that would take him abroad on more than 50 journeys -- from Italy, Sweden and Poland to Taiwan and China. He was one of the first glass artists to travel to Czechoslovakia, a famed glass center to which he has returned a number of times during his career. He has worked with local artisans and materials in factory settings around the world to produce blown glass for his artworks. The resulting pieces were shipped back to his Berkeley studio for cold working -- sawing, grinding, sandblasting and polishing.
The exhibition includes large photographs of Lipofsky working with glass artists in workshops, studios and factories throughout the world. A video of the process of finishing glass in his Berkeley studio brings Lipofsky and the glassmaking process to life in the gallery space. Also included are works on paper, working drawings and tools revealing the artist's creative process.
As a teacher, Lipofsky has trained a generation of artists who currently staff studio glass programs and operate glass studios throughout the country. He was a founder of the Glass Art Society, and has been editor of its journal. He has had more than 40 solo exhibitions and has been included in hundreds of group shows. He twice received NEA Fellowships and has been selected as an American Crafts Council Fellow and as a Living Treasure of California by the Crocker Art Museum.
His work appears in more than 80 museum and corporate collections and in numerous private collections. Museums that own works by Lipofsky include, in addition to the Oakland Museum of California, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; and the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The exhibition is curated by Suzanne Baizerman, curator of decorative arts at the Oakland Museum of California.
Marvin Lipofsky: A Glass Odyssey is accompanied by a catalog of the same name, edited by exhibition curator Suzanne Baizerman, published by the Oakland Museum of California and distributed by the University of Washington Press (2003).
The exhibition is sponsored by the Oakland Museum Women's Board, with additional support provided by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and individual patrons."
Unknown. "Marvin Lipofsky A glass oddessy." Absolute Arts. Accessed October 18, 2009. http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/07/18/31219.html
2003 Mary Thomas:

"
With her engaging exhibition "Matter," Brooklyn artist Jill Reynolds not only shakes up standard expectations of what glass art looks like, but also throws into question isolate readings of scientific precepts.
This glass skeleton by Jill Reynolds, titled "Gnomon" -- the word for the column on a sundial that casts the shadow -- adds a reminder of mortality to the passing of time. In the background, "Beauty," from 2000, comprises mirrored glass letters that tempt the viewer, in vain, to look for his reflection.
Photo Credit: Pittsburg Post-Gazette.
Reynolds was artist-in-residence earlier this year at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in Friendship, which has already reconfigured the face of glass for local audiences although it hasn't yet reached its second anniversary.
Intent upon putting Pittsburgh on the map as a nationally and internationally important site for studio glass education and creation, the center also has in its mission the support of glass artists and the education of the public about contemporary glass through exhibitions and talks.
The center's second resident artist, Reynolds contributes with a conceptually strong exhibition that's flavored with the medium rather than intoxicated by it. Indeed, at times it disappears altogether: Those toothpick-imbedded Styrofoam balls are just that, and not some tour de force illusion.
Reynolds -- who was an emerging-artist-in-residence at Pilchuk Glass School, Stanwood, Wash., and who's received a commission from the Corning Museum of Glass -- has exhibited at, among other venues, the MIT List Visual Art Center and the Seattle Art Museum.
The Hodge Gallery, partitioned for the exhibition, shows earlier works made as parts of larger installations in the first section, which illustrate Reynolds' humor, irreverence and palpable querying. "Are we considering all the angles?" you can almost hear the artist asking.
Sand pours through the dozen bulbous hourglass-like globes of the motor-driven "Analog," referencing the unremitting passage of months and hours. The three small, transparent glass skulls of "Ancestor, Recollection, Memorandum" contain, respectively, a smaller carbon skull, rose-colored sand that's seeping out and an alphabet-inscribed slate that calls to mind the Rosetta Stone. "Body Alphabet," represented in 26 backlit slides, inspires new ways of looking at both the body and letters.
Most exciting, because it is of one cloth, is the work made at the center shown in the second gallery.
The centerpiece is "Table of Elements," a take-off on chemistry's periodic table, with numbers of mixed-media objects arranged on a light table, some of them modified lab vessels like flasks or test tubes. Elsewhere, cute-as-buttons twins connected with a rubber hose umbilicus, "Replicate," raises questions about cloning, near a fabulous configuration of "Molecula" that glows eerily green. "Kekule's Dream" was inspired by the discoveries of a German chemist of that name, while the "molecular" chain of "Family Line" carries references to Reynolds' own. "Gravity" sounds scientific but has a beauty that's as arresting as innocence.
"Replicate," one of the works created by Brooklyn artist Jill Reynolds while she was in residence at the Pittsburgh Glass Center this year, is a humorous appearing commentary on a topical subject, cloning.
PhotoCredit: Pittsburg Post-Gazette
All specifics aside, what becomes evident as the viewer attempts to decipher facts stylistic and technical is that he's stumbled into an undefined world that exists between them.
The overall effect is to show how cultural expectations precondition our reading of all components of our universe. That a viewer's life experience influences his or her interpretation of an artwork is a given in contemporary art dialogue. To claim that the reception -- even perhaps the structuring -- of a scientific principle may be culturally steered is a harder sell. Reynolds' presentation introduces the notion that absolute might not be as unmitigable as we think, and that categorical separations may be as arbitrary as racial classifications.
It's a good time to visit the center (see hours below) because classes have been suspended during torturously hot August and parking is readily available in its adjacent lot. Or, attend the free Hot Jam Open House from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 5 and see "Matter" along with glass blowing and flame-working demonstrations, snacks and entertainment.
"Matter" continues through Sept. 19 at 5472 Penn Ave. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. Admission is free. For information: call 412-365-2145 or visit www.pittsburghglasscenter.org."
Thomas, M. "Art Review: 'Matter' is more proof that glass art matters." Pittsburg Post-Gazette. August 23, 2003. Accessed September 8, 2009. http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20030823thomas0823p5.asp

Friday, July 3, 2009

Your Gold Teeth II

Check out the Marianne Boesky Gallery website for 31 photos of the exhibition: http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com/exhibitions/2009-06-19_your-gold-teeth-ii-curated-by-todd-levin/

2009 Todd Levin:

"YOUR GOLD TEETH II
Curated by Todd Levin
June 19 – August 15, 2009
Opening reception June 18, 2009 6-8pm

jãnis AVOTIŅŠ jean-michel BASQUIAT alexandra BIRCKEN alighiero e. BOETTI james CASTLE joseph CORNELL thea DJORDJADZE leonardo DREW robert ELFGEN roe ETHRIDGE peter FISCHLI/david WEISS melissa GORDON Rodney GRAHAM hannah GREELY rashawn GRIFFIN françoise GROSSEN david HAMMONS jay HEIKES mary HEILMANN barkley l. HENDRICKS diane ITTER sergej JENSEN titus KAPHAR marvin LIPOFSKY john MCQUEEN ed MOULTHROP bruce NAUMAN cady NOLAND william j. O'BRIEN george OHR demetrius OLIVER yoko ONO paul OUTERBRIDGE steven PARRINO ed ROSSBACH sterling RUBY anj SMITH shinique SMITH gert & uwe TOBIAS rosemarie TROCKEL peter VOULKOS franz WEST toots ZYNSKY

Curator Statement

For three years, starting in 1961 (the year I was born), the English literary critic A. Alvarez prepared a series of programs for BBC radio on the intellectual scene in America called "Under Pressure." In these broadcasts, various writers commented on the need for artists to create their own language. This is an extract of what poet Robert Lowell said to Alvarez: "Some artists have impatience with the prosaic, everyday things of life, that sort of whimsical patience that other people may have…they leap for the sublime…what one finds wrong with culture is the monotony of the sublime…Art is always done with both your hands…the artist finds new life in it and almost sheds their outer life.."

Whilst relistening to, and reflecting upon these radio programs recently, it became sadly apparent that facile irony had become one of the dominant philosophical stances of the art world, and that perhaps the artists and artwork I chose for inclusion in Your Gold Teeth II simply had to lay in wait until the Oligarch decade was over. Any artist can hide for a long time in the wilds of their own irony, never rising above the vegetation. But hipness, in the illicit art world sense, feels suddenly puerile, meaningless, a sham, another way of simply buying into the system. One is sick to death of all the posturing.

In contrast, within this group exhibition one senses that boundaries are being tested, and rules of art conduct are being subverted – not subverted where craft is cast aside in favor of studied simplicity such as in the recent Whitney Biennial and Unmonumental exhibitions, but subverted by craft itself. On the contrary, there is a 'muchness' to a great deal of the work in this exhibition. When the cultural bar has recently been lowered to the point of absurdity, the only revenge worthy of the name comes from reestablishing standards lost to laziness and expediency, putting into sharp relief the dreck that surrounds it.

So much of what one sees today is one-sided. Either it is cold and calculated, with a minimum of feeling, or it is a sloppy slum of terrifying emotion. Somewhere in the labyrinth the artists in this exhibition have found individual answers to this balancing act. To give this 'answer' in words is approachable, but ultimately impossible. What is involved is the union of an idea with emotion, precomposition with improvisation, discipline with spontaneity.

These artists have an affinity for the controlled yet significant gesture, the performed essence, a result of concentrated internal selection from a vast repertoire of expressive options. This stripped down approach to craft often obscures a wider technical command than is immediately apparent. If you're looking for order, you will find it. But even when these artists systematically subvert themselves for the devious pleasure of it, they still maintain a level of control where they strange can be made familiar - and vice versa. By eschewing displays of obvious virtuosity, the artist gains the advantage of a kind of mystery.

A good jazz improviser can make one note do the job of many. Incomplete utterances can fully communicate an idea. Imply, don't state. Artwork doesn't have a necessary end goal. Ideas, rendered in these artists' distinctive lo-fi argot, feel aired out and simplified without being rendered trivial. A sense of satisfactory unsatisfaction remains. The artwork featured in Your Gold Teeth II is about the opening up of ideas and approaches, not the pin-point sharpening of them. - Todd Levin, June 2009

Marianne Boesky Gallery is located at 509 West 24th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Our summer hours are Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm beginning June 23rd. For further information or images, please contact Annie Rana at 212.680.9889 or annie@marianneboeskygallery.com.
"

Levin, T. "Your Gold Teeth II, curator's statement." posted at Marianne Boesky Gallery website. accessed July 3, 2009. http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com/exhibitions/2009-06-19_your-gold-teeth-ii-curated-by-todd-levin/pressrelease/

2009 Bone's Beat, Village Voice blog:

"

yourgoldteeth.jpg
courtesy Marianne Boesky Gallery

The discreet jiggle that comes with the New York art world's switch to summer hours--Monday to Friday instead of Tuesday to Saturday--acts as a blunt industry-wide signal: the people who buy and sell art at a high level have checked out until September. Some are chasing fashionable azure horizons from weekend to weekend, basically moving their operation to where the money's camped for the season, while the rest are wealthy enough to take real vacations. Pressure eases beautifully in the top dogs' absence. Unmonitored, the junior skeleton crews at the galleries unclench themselves, enjoying their jobs and smiling with more than just pursed lips, and the barn-like desolation and exquisitely tuned air conditioning make for a preferable July grime timeout than a bob into your hysterical avenue standby. So adios, Old Navy, it's quirky summer group show time in Chelsea.

Your Gold Teeth II, which just opened at Marianne Boesky, announced itself with a freewheeling and polemical press release that claims, in between bits on Robert Lowell and jazz improvisation, that "the cultural bar has been lowered to the point of absurdity." Curator Todd Levin throws himself behind a chunky thesis that indulges a lot of the man's strongly expressed grievances about "hipness," "facile irony," and "posturing," too many perhaps, but I'll boil it down: Mr. Levin is looking for sincerity and openness on the contemporary scene. I'm not sure that the lyrics to the Steely Dan song of the show's title need have been reprinted in full on the press release's flipside, but this is what summer shows are all about. These seldom-remembered exhibitions clearly mean a great deal to the people who put them together, who know that the chance to volunteer their tastes without a cool, self-preserving hedge does not come around when the fearsomely stoic professional facade of this industry is at full strength.

At the same time, the seams of the business are revealed when the audience is not expected to be looking very hard. Marianne Boesky has dozens of mouths to feed whatever the weather, and Your Gold Teeth II presents bankable opportunities to the dealer, the curator (no stranger to the money game himself as the curator of hedge fund manager Adam Sender's $100-million-plus collection) and, third in line, the loyal clients. A show like this can chase up-to-the-minute trends for quick flips, clean commercially tarnished gems, and dust off retrouve artists in hopes of establishing strong market values. It is a grab bag of techniques to make as much quick money as possible in the off-season.

Ceramics are hot this year, buoyed by certified art world events like Sterling Ruby's home run at Metro Pictures in March and the global ripple from the ICA Philadelphia's ambitious survey Dirt on Delight, so there's a raft of ceramic work in this show that's looking to glom on to the moment as a result. Older artists who've had a bump in visibility through well-received museum retrospectives and magazine cover-stardom have had early works plucked from collector walls and plonked in the show to see what they can do, from Mary Heilmann (New Museum, Artforum, Art in America) to Franz West (LA County Museum, Artforum) and Barkley Hendricks (Studio Museum Harlem, Artforum). Pieces that have been languishing on the secondary market at too high a price--I imagine the very nice Basquiat oilstick piece from '82 has been knocking around for a while--are given a chance to benefit from new context and to shake the psychological dings and scratches that come from being tossed from dealer to fishing dealer.

These business matters are both interesting and obviously distasteful, but there is also a beating heart to this show. Levin's aesthetic favors the handmade and the passed down, the spooky and the meditative, the crafty and the inventive, the unflashily, ineffably authentic. The 73 works on show are affable and all over the place, loose and ready to coalesce, generously, however the viewer sees fit.

Yoko Ono's Painting To Hammer a Nail is a white wooden panel with bashed-in nails over its surface. A light-duty hammer hangs from a chain, and a tin of nails is pegged to the wall below. It wasn't you, and I didn't dare try, but somebody knocked in those nails, and their great pleasure in the act lingers as if it just happened. Fischli & Weiss' 1987 Schublade is a wooden dresser drawer cast in black rubber, an object that hovers between Ikea banality and terrifying fetish. There's an hour-long fixed-angle video from 1999 in which Bruce Nauman methodically digs a deep hole in a patchy desert field, while Rodney Graham's four-minute film--super-8 footage of drifting ducks and wavy blossoms intercut with a Gibson guitar slowly, lovingly buffed with a fluffy white shammy--goes nowhere even more explicitly.

Roe Etheridge presents two photographs, a late afternoon platter of a perfect half-dozen Oysters and Sarah Beth with Pipe, wherein the willowy crumpet in question takes a heroic puff of grass. It seems preposterous that these brazen moments of leisure and simplicity grow to endear instead of offend, but this is the show working as it hopes to. Levin's plea for sincerity takes hold as the gentle collective pulse of this grouping becomes harder to deny and the experience of taking pleasure in art approaches something like second nature. The commercial art world can never really take a holiday from its fundamental baseness and vulgarity. But this is the sort of show that reminds a viewer that art does have the power to trump money, for a few short months anyway."

Bones' Beat: Chelsea Summer Season Begins with Your Gold Teeth II at Marianne Boesky". June 25, 2009. Village Voice website accessed July 3, 2009. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/06/bones_beat_summ.php

2009 Paula Hayes:

Photo Credit: Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/garden/11landscape.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1

2009 Roberta Smith:

"Your Gold Teeth II” is a smart and fantastically inclusive group show organized by the independent curator Todd Levin. It is named for a Steely Dan song, and its opening act, in rock concert terms, is a project show of Paula Hayes’s latest terrariums and plant holders. The resulting double-header might be titled “Living With Nature/Looking at Art.”

Ms. Hayes is a trained sculptor and gardener who has combined both interests in functional art for the last decade. Her latest terrariums are bigger than before and especially satisfying as sculpture. Their clear, thick-walled, hand-blown glass volumes are layered with contrasting striations of pebbles, terra-cotta beads, earth and finally plants; they enhance the wonder of plant life.

Some are small and lie on the floor, like very large bubbles. Others rise vertically to as much as four and a half feet, like smooth, abbreviated cactuses, with the plants nearly at eye level. For those lacking green thumbs, there are also terrariums filled with crystals of different sizes and colors.

On the gallery’s terrace Ms. Hayes has arranged a rather overwrought garden of worthwhile individual delights. There are paving stones made of recycled rubber and a birdbath of clear acrylic that looks like an icicle. Best of all are Ms. Hayes’s planters. Those in soft silicone have a lopsided luminescence; others are made of sheets of thick rubber rendered useful by being either folded or outfitted with a drawstring. Like the glass terrariums these containers seem like life forms themselves.

In the main galleries Mr. Levin has assembled a visual rebus that deliberately ignores those increasingly irrelevant divides between art and craft, old and new, commercial and fine. The works are arranged in unusually tight clusters without labels; formal and visual affinities are established before you quite know what you’re looking at. It’s a great way to erode visual prejudice.

Mr. Levin matches up the browns in Barkley L. Hendricks’s painting of a black woman with an enormous potlike sculpture by Peter Voulkos. He orchestrates a little meditation on spheres, holes and containers with works by Demetrius Oliver, Cady Noland, Roe Ethridge, Bruce Nauman, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Paul Outerbridge and Ed Moulthrop, a master wood turner. Is that a see-through grid by Alan Shields next to the jacquardlike abstraction by Jay Heikes? No, it is by Ed Rossbach, who was a leading figure in fiber art. Elsewhere an unusually abstract drawing by James Castle is effectively paired with a geometric basket by John McQueen.

To a list of fairly usual suspects (Alighiero E. Boetti, Franz West, Sergej Jensen), Mr. Levin has added the pots of George Ohr, the evocative fiber pieces of Françoise Grossen and Diane Itter and the glass works of Marin Lipofsky and Toots Zynsky. He has also come up with marvelous things by David Hammons, Alexandra Bircken, Hannah Greely, Janis Avotins and Joseph Cornell. Again and again this show makes you stop, look close and think.

Nearly every juxtaposition reveals shared concerns and questions needless division. It’s a very big and exciting art world out there, if it would ever get itself together."

Hayes, P. "Paula Hayes." NY Times, July 2, 2009. website accessed July 3, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/arts/design/03gall.html

Saturday, June 6, 2009

1964

Before anyone was a 'glass artist' there were only artists learning to 'exploit' the material of glass.

The Tricky and Fascinating Four, where are they today?

1.
Marvin Lipofsky--One of the most well-known glass artists today, presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from GAS
2. Monona Rossol--The best voice in safety for artists in all materials, she's an author, stage performer, ceramics and glass artist and industrial hygienist, too.
3. Samuel Herman-- Mark Hill, author of Miller's Collectible Price Guide, and expert on Antiques Roadshow says he's "Arguably the greatest name in British studio glass - and pretty darned important in the global studio glass movement too. Unfairly in my mind at least, few recognise his incredible vision, abilities and importance. Without him, studio glass techniques would not and could not have spread to the UK and beyond."
4. Rodger Lang--ceramicist and teacher at Metropolitan State College in Denver, CO. Passed away in 2000.



1964 Wisconson State Journal:

"Four Madison artists who have been experimenting in the tricky and fascinating art of glass-blowing under the tutelage of Prof. Harvey Littleton, of the University of Wisconsin, will be showing their work Monday at the Madison Art Association’s Downtown Sidewalk Art Fair in Capitol Park.

They are Samuel Herman, Marvin Lipofsky, Rodger Lang, and Monona Rossol, all U.W. graduate students or former graduate students specializing in ceramics and sculpture.
They pursue their interest in creating beauty in glass at 52 Randall ave. in a new workshop that formerly served as a warehouse for pleasure boats.

This unpretentious tin building called the “glass lab” is a mecca for students and teachers of the ancient art of glass-blowing, who are attracted by the skill and creativeness of Littleton, well-known for many years as a potter and now achieving new laurels for his artistry in glass.

One of Littleton’s vases is currently on display in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s good design exhibit, and four pieces are included in the 13th International Design Triennale in Milan, Italy.

Littleton is also the only glass artist now exhibiting at New York’s Museum of Contemporary Crafts.

Grants Built Lab

His personal interest in glass as an art form is responsible for the glass lab, which was set up a year ago in several grants prompted by an original gift of $1,000 from the Johns-Manville glass fibers division.

To Littleton’s knowledge, the grant was the first from an industrial or private source ever
received by the U.W. art department for practicing arts.

It has already reaped rewards. A class of eight graduate students worked under Littleton there the past 10 months, achieving results which the talented teacher modestly lauds as ‘better than I managed in several years working alone at the furnace I have at my farm.”

Among them are the four young people who will be exhibiting at the art fair. Lang, a native of Chicago and graduate of Cornell College was sent to Littleton by a former Littleton student who know teaches at Iowa college.

Herman is the blass lab [sic] assistant for the summer, and will have a sculpture assistantship [sic] this fall as he continues work on his master’s degree.

Won Show Award
Miss Rossol holds a degree in chemistry from the university as well as a master’s degree in art and a M.F.A. She won an award for her glass last fall in the Wisconsin Designer-Craftsman show.

Marvin Lipofsky, who received his M.F.A. in sculpture in June, is the first disciple to spread the Littleton influence to another campus. He goes in the fall to the University of California at Berkeley, to start a program in glass at the undergraduate level in the department of decorative arts.

The University of Iowa and the Haystack School in Maine currently have summer workshops in this medium, but LIpofsky’s venture comprises the first regularly scheduled program in free-blown glass at the university level other than here at Wisconsin.
Spreading of interest and know how to other campuses is one of Littleton’s objectives, for he sees as long-overdue the re-adoption of glass as a medium of creative expression.

“The creative artist and the craftsman have been separated. We believe that the artist’s heart, hand, and head should all be used together and simultaneously to express the idea that originates within him. Glass can be many things. You’re out not to re-discover but to exploit as an artist some of the things of the past, he says.

To this end the glass furnace at 52 N. Randall glows [..?..] day, giving off a loud humming that immediately attracts the passerby. It was built by students, as was the annealing oven and other equipment.

4-Week Class Held
To this end to, Littleton has set up a four-week class this summer for specialists and instructors from all over the country who were invited to the university to learn and to share their knowledge of free-blown glass.

From Munich, Germany, has come Erwin Eisch, painter, sculptor, co-owner of a Bavarian glass factory, and one of the few individual glass artists in the world today.

Dr. Robert Fritz, assistant professor of ceramics at San Jose State College, and Russell Day, a well-known glass artists who is head of the art department at Everett Junior College [sic] in Washington, have come from the West Coast to observe, experiment, and learn.

An industrial engineer, Carl H. Betz of Philadelphia, whose work in glass-blowing has been extensive in the scientific instrument filed, is discovering new joys in free-blown glass.
Other invited ‘students’ are Don Wallace, sculptor and ceramist from Toronto; Frank Kulasjewicz, a doctoral candidate in art education at Teacher’s College, Columbia University; Robert C. Florian, a prominent art educator from Franklin Park, Ill.; and Mrs. Gail Griggs, a graduate student associated with the Art Institute of Chicago.”


['Artists Experiment With Glassblowing' from Wisconsin State Journal], 1964 July 12 / Wisconsin State Journal. Clipping : 1 p. ; 38 x 24 cm. Harvey K. Littleton papers, 1946-1975. Archives of American Art.website accessed June 6, 2009 and transcribed by ABJ. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/searchimages/images/image_201_168.htm

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass Awards

2009 From the AACG website:

"The AACG Annual Award

Each year the AACG selects an organization to be honored for its contributions to the contemporary glass movement. This organization receives an unrestricted grant from the Alliance, and is invited to present a public program at SOFA Chicago in conjunction with the AACG Annual Meeting. The Honorees have been:
  • 1991: Rhode Island School of Design
  • 1992: Penland School of Arts and Crafts
  • 1994: Urban Glass
  • 1995: Pilchuck Glass School
  • 1996: Glass Art Society
  • 1997: Bullseye Connection
  • 1998: Glass Program of University of Illinois
  • 1999: The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass
  • 2000: Glass Program of California College of the Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts)
  • 2001: Creative Glass Center of America (at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville NJ)
  • 2002: Mint Museum of Craft + Design
  • 2003: Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • 2004: Corning Museum's Mobile Hot Shop
  • 2005: The Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center
  • 2006: The Glass Program of the University of Miami
  • 2007: The National Liberty Museum
  • 2008 (to be presented November 8, 2009 at SOFA Chicago): Museum of Glass, Tacoma.

AACG Honors

In 2001, the AACG began a new program of recognizing individuals of outstanding accomplishment in the field of contemporary glass art. Honorees may be artists, collectors, curators, critics, teachers, authors, gallery owners and directors,and any others whose contributions have been significant and important in the field. Recipients are introduced at the AACG Annual Meeting at SOFA-Chicago. These awards have been given to:

  • 2001:
    • Harvey Littleton, Artist
    • Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, Artists
    • Hilbert (posthumous) and Jean Sosin, Collectors
  • 2002
    • George and Dorothy Saxe, Collectors
    • Joel Philip Myers, Artist
  • 2003
    • Ferdinand Hampson and Doug Heller (joint award), Gallery Owners
    • Jack Pelisek (posthumous), Collector
    • Paul Stankard, Artist
  • 2004
    • Tina Oldknow, Curator
    • Myrna and Sheldon Palley, Collectors
    • Mark Peiser, Artist.
  • 2005
    • Marvin Lipofsky, Artist
    • William Warmus, Critic, Curator
  • 2006
    • Richard Marquis, Artist
    • Natalie and Ben Heineman, Collectors
  • 2007
    On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of AACG, to the founders of the organization:
  • Madeline Baer (posthumous)
  • Wally Baer (posthumous)
  • Mike Belkin
  • Irvin Borowsky
  • Gloria Kamm
  • Sonny Kamm
  • Elmerina Parkman
  • Paul Parkman
  • Bobbi Raphael (posthumous)
  • Jerry Raphael (posthumous)
  • Dorothy Saxe
  • George Saxe
  • Hilbert Sosin (posthumous)
  • Jean Sosin
  • Paul Stankard
  • Laurie Wagman
  • 2008 (to be presented November 8, 2008 at SOFA Chicago)

    • Simona and Jerome Chazen, collectors
    • Bonnie Marx and Ken Saunders, gallerists"
AACG. "Awards of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass". Website list last updated June 5, 2008. Website accessed May 10, 2009. http://www.contempglass.org/activities/awards.html

Friday, May 8, 2009

Bonhams Modern and Contemporary Glass Sale


Sale 17045 - Modern and Contemporary Glass
New Bond Street, 19 May 2009

Here's a list of pieces I'm interested in at the Bonham's Contemporary Glass Auction on May 19, 2009. I agree with the pricing for the most part; while it's not what the artists want or deserve, nor does it compare to contemporary painting and sculpture in other mediums, it is more likely to sell at these prices--and selling, in my opinion, is more important at this stage, than the hammer price. Prices will go up on their own if demand increases (increase in demand is unrelated to increase in artistic talent) so why price everything extraordinarily high (with everything in the thousands as some galleries do)? (Is it only to keep the illusion alive or do they really sell in that range often enough? I don't know.) The auction lacks any famous piece to center around which might have driven prices up. Though their are many famous names present, there are many famous names not present. Because of the names not present this is neither a great nor a comprehensive catalogue to reference as "Modern and Contemporary Glass", but because it is the first of it's kind, and it's best not to tarnish the big pieces and big names on this first go round should the auction tank, we'll play wait and see yet again with the studio glass market and maybe next time there will be some big commissions. Bonham's is priced to sell. The low pricing may bring in a lot of bidders and in doing so drive the prices up.

Lot No: 137
Toots Zynsky (American, born 1951)
'More Tropical Chaos' a sculptural glass Vessel form, 1999
pulled and fused glass threads, in shades of blue, green, red and yellow
50 x 22 x 35cm, marked 'Z' in red
Estimate: £8,000 - 10,000, €8,900 - 11,000
Toots Zynsky's work stands out from all other contemporary glass because of the way it is formed from coloured threads of glass to build a vessel, a technique that may well have been inspired from nest-building. Her work is instantly recognisable not only from its physical appearance, but the colour palette that she uses which has been compared to the plumage of exotic birds.
Please see Jennifer Hawkins Opie' Contemporary International Glass: 60 artists in the V & A', V & A Publications 2005 pp. 138-139 and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 226-229

Lot No: 159

Alison Kinnaird M.B.E. (British, born 1949) and Dante Marrione (American, born 1964)
'Stream' an engraved glass Flask, 2007
copper-wheel engraved
approx 25cm high, signed 'Alison Kinnaird'
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, €1,100 - 1,700
This piece is a collaboration between Alison Kinnaird and glassblower Dante Marrione. The form was blown by Dante Marrione when leading a master class at North Lands Creative glass and later engraved.
Generously donated by the artists, the proceeds going to the North Lands Creative Glass Trust
Please see D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 102-103
Lot Notice
Please note this piece is blown by Dante Marioni and not as stated in the online catalogue

Lot No: 124
Venini
'Cannette' a black glass Vase, circa 1960
with orange streaks, of compressed globular form
25cm diam, etched 'Venini, Italia'
Estimate: £500 - 700, €560 - 780
Please see Marc Heireman 'Murano Glass Themes and Variations (1910-70)', Arnoldsche Art Publishers, pg. 112.

Lot No: 101
Charles Parriott (American, born 1952)
'Apathy, Prosperity, Privacy' a blown white glass bowl with burgundy lip decoration , circa 1983
with lettering and powdered colour, trailed glass rod and photographic transfer imagery
30cm diam, 11cm high, with paper label CP004
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, €1,100 - 1,700
Please see Carole E. Phillips 'American Glass Northwest', 1982.

Lot No: 89*
Nick Mount (Australian, born 1952)
'Female Nude' a figural Sculpture, 1992
the glass blown through wire frame work, on metal stand
32cm high, signed and dated to stand
Estimate: £4,000 - 5,000, €4,400 - 5,600

Lot No: 81

William Morris (American, born 1957)
'Stonehenge' a blown glass sculptural Vase, 1984
in shades of red, green, blue, yellow and grey
40.3 x 32.4cm, signed and dated
From boyhood Morris sought inspiration from the woods and hills surrounding his home in California, where he explored caves and dug the earth in search of ancient artifacts. He has a serious interest in ancient civilisations, their primitive tools, their brutal rituals. He is a hunter who shoots deer and welk with a bow and arrow, preferring to hunt alone. Among things that have inspired him are cave drawings and as shown in this piece Stonehenge. The imagery in his works reflects these many interests and influences.
Please see Suzanne K.Frantz 'Contemporary Glass, A World Survey from the Corning Museum of Glass', Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, 1989 p.97, similar example illustrated and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 152-153.
Estimate: £10,000 - 15,000, €11,000 - 17,000

Lot No: 73
Marvin Lipofsky (American, born 1938)
'Sketch' a glass abstract form, 1981
blown into a wooden mould created by the artist, manipulated whilst hot 'splashed' with colour, cut, ground, polished
26cm wide, 20cm high, signed in diamond point 'Lipofsky, 1981 sketch'
Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000, €1,700 - 2,200
For a comparable example see Lipofsky, A Glass Odyssey, Oakland Museum, California, 2003, p.92 and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 122-123

Lot No: 55
Pavel Hlava (Czech, 1924-2002)
'Vase-Object' a mould blown glass Vessel, circa 1975
'punctured' with an indentation
40cm high, signed in diamond point Pavel Hlava Czechoslovakia
Estimate: £1,200 - 1,500, €1,300 - 1,700
For a similar example of this technique see Pavla Hlava, Sylva Petrova, 1994, p.32

Lot No: 56
Pavel Hlava (Czech, 1924-2002)
'Vase-Object' a mould blown glass Vessel, circa 1975
'punctured' with an indentation
17cm x 26cm, signed in diamond point 'Pavel Hlava, Czechoslovakia'
Estimate: £1,200 - 1,500, €1,300 - 1,700
For a similar example of this technique see Pavel Hlava, Sylva Petrova, 1994, p.32.

Lot No: 39AR
Erwin Eisch (German, born 1927)
An opalescent white glass Buddha head, circa 1985
mould-blown, the glass with figurative decoration in gold-leaf
59.5cm high, unsigned
Estimate: £2,500 - 3,500, €2,800 - 3,900
Please see D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 68-71 and Suzanne K.Frantz 'Contemporary Glass, A World Survey from the Corning Museum of Glass', Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, 1989 p.56 for similar examples.

Lot No: 43
Kyohei Fujita (Japanese, 1921-2004)
A mould-blown glass square Box and Cover, circa 1985
blue glass with silver and gold leaf applications, in original wooden box and cover with ties
7cm square, the box stamped with the artist's monogram (4)
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, €1,100 - 1,700
For similar examples see F. Lyngaard 'Kyohei Fujita, The Man and his Work', Borgen, 2000 and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 76-79

Lot No: 33AR
Steffen Dam (Danish, born 1961)
A blue glass Bowl, 2001
blown glass
21cm diam, 11.7cm high, signed and dated
Estimate: £400 - 500, €450 - 560
Please see Dam Karlslund Glas, Glasmuseets forlag, 1997

Lot No: 16*
Jane Bruce (British/American born 1947)
'Sentinel' a large yellow, red-saffron and blue Vessel form, 2004
blown glass, wheel-cut
83cm high, 14cm diam, signed and dated
Estimate: £2,000 - 2,500, €2,200 - 2,800
Please see exhibition catalogue '21st Century British Glass', 11-21 January 2005, Daniel Katz Limited in association with Dan Klein Associates, pg. 19.

Lot No: 22
Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)
'Soft Cylinder' with green lip, circa 1992
blown glass
35 x 25 x 18cm, signed
Estimate: £7,000 - 9,000, €7,800 - 10,000
Please see 'Chihuly', Harry N.Abrams Inc, New York, 1997 and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 36-41

Lot No: 23
Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)
'Sea-Form' blown glass with white mottling and red lip wrap
47cm wide, signed in diamond point 'Chihuly 1986'
Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000, €1,700 - 2,200
Please see Chihuly, Harry N.Abrams Inc, New York, 1997 and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 36-41

Lot No: 24
Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)
'Sea-Form' a white three piece form, 1985
each segment in thin blown clear glass inlaid with fine white lines and marks, two with white lip wraps
largest segment: 25 x 20cm, signed and dated
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, €1,100 - 1,700
Please see Contemporary Glass, A World Survey from the Corning Museum of Glass, by Suzanne K.Frantz, Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, 1989 for similar examples and D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 36-41

Lot No: 9*
Giles Bettison (Australian, born 1966)
A Murrine amber glass Vessel, 1996
25.5cm high, 15cm diam, signed and dated
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, €1,100 - 1,700
In Bettison's work he has more or less reinvented the ancient Venetian tradition of incorporating murrine into glass vessels along with the Bullseye Glass Company in Portland, Oregon, USA. The semi-transparency of the glass looks like the vessels have been lit from within and give a three dimensional feel to his patterns. His inspiration comes from the landscape and colours of the South Australian landscape.
Please see D. Klein 'Artists in Glass Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass' publ. Mitchell Beazley, pg's. 28-29P and Margot Osborne 'Australian Glass Today' Wakerfield Press, 2005 – p96 and Helen Schamroth '100 New Zealand Craft Artists', Godwit, Random House, New Zealand, pg. 72, 73.

To be sold for the benefit of North Lands Creative Glass, Caithness

Bonhams. Sale 17045. website accessed May 8, 2009.
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=catalogue&iSaleNo=17045

From Dan Klein Associates website: "Bonhams in association with Dan Klein Associates is excited to announce its first sale of contemporary glass scheduled to take place on May 19th 2009. The sale will be composed of glass from 1950 to the present day (with a distinct preference for historic pieces dating from before 2000) and the catalogue will be distributed to Bonhams clients worldwide. The sale, timed to coincide with Collect 2009, will be previewed at Bonhams, New Bond Street from Friday May 15 to Monday 18 May 2009."0
Accessed May 9, 2009. http://www.dankleinglass.com/auctions/auctions.html

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Marvin Lipofsky in the SF Examiner

April 25, 2009

"Fine art glass sculptors, such as the Dale Chihuly, and his proteges at the Pilchuk Glass School, line the Pacific Northwest from Washington, all the way down to Jamex and Einar de la Torre’s studios, traversing California’s southernmost border town and a sliver of Mexico. In between lies the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the richest repositories of award-winning glass sculpture in the world. Local glass artists such as Julie Alland, Elin Christopherson, Jaime Guerrero, Clifford Rainey, David Ruth, Randy Strong, Pamina Traylor, Chuck Vannatta, and Dana Zed, are but a few. The most exciting of these artists is Berkeley resident, Marvin Lipofsky, an internationally recognized, and understated, pioneer of the contemporary glass movement, whose sculpture and educational efforts over the past 40+ years are fundamental to establishing glass as a fine art medium."

Van Zwoll, M. "Marvin Lipofsky, living legend." San Francisco Examiner. April 25, 2009. http://www.examiner.com/x-4790-SF-Contemporary-Arts-Examiner~y2009m4d25-Marvin-Lipofsky--Living-Legend Accessed April 25, 2009.

Monday, April 13, 2009

1982

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.

1982 Dale Chihuly:
"Macchia Sea Form Group" by Dale Chihuly, assisted by William Morris, and Benjamin Moore, 1982, Providence Rhode Island. Corning Museum of Glass. ABJ photo, 2008.

1982 Grace Gluek:

"
THE French symbolist, Stephane Mallarme (1842-98), is not the most accessible of poets, believing as he did that language shouldn't reveal, but veil. A friend of artists, he tried to get a number of them to illustrate his cryptic texts. Most confessed their bafflement; Manet and - much later - Matisse were among the few who succeeded. Now Christopher Wilmarth, a sculptor known for his austere, Minimal creations of steel and etched glass, has dauntlessly taken up the challenge. Inspired by the translations of the American poet Frederick Morgan, Mr. Wilmarth has responded wholeheartedly, producing not only a series of sculptures, but etchings, drawings and paintings that deal with the themes of seven Mallarme poems.

It wasn't easy. Like most Mallarme readers, Mr. Wilmarth had problems with the inscrutable texts. On a teaching job in California, he pored over the translations for several months. At first responding to the external images they conjured up, he finally discovered ''that the poems had a common denominator, Mallarme's own separateness.''

''His imagination and reverie meant more to him than anything that was actually of the world,'' Mr. Wilmarth said. ''His work is about the anguish and longing of experience not fully realized, and I found something of myself in it.''

This emotional discovery coincided with a physical one: idly sketching some dishes in the apartment he had rented, Mr. Wilmarth started moving his arm in ''a different rhythm,'' breaking a certain habit pattern. ''Working my arm in a way I hadn't before coincided with a realization of what those poems were about.'' More than a hundred drawings later, he was able to arrive at a series of connected images, whose basic component is an oval form that suggests an egg, a seed, a head. At first drawing in charcoal, then pastel, he became so engrossed in the project that he turned to sculpture before doing the etchings that accompany the printed Mallarme-Morgan texts. Later came paintings, and finally a small book of poems of his own, inspired by the Morgan translations.

But it's the sculptural part of this endeavor that really excites. For his dimensional images, Mr. Wilmarth has made new use of his familiar medium, glass. Working with a glass craftsman, Marvin Lipofsky, he has produced a number of variations of the fragile, ovoid shape in hand-blown, acid-etched glass, taking full advantage of the affinities of this material for light and delicate coloration. And here, at home in his own mode and material, he has succeeded wonderfully in conveying a sense of Mallarme.

For the poem that begins ''When winter on forgotten woods moves somber,'' for instance, possibly inspired by the death of a friend's young wife, the glass shape is an elongated bubble of misted blue, with a hole cut in its surface that seems to suggest an indrawn breath. For another poem, ''Saint,'' the ''pallid saint'' is suggested by a diminished oval in the shape of a pear, or maybe a skull, contained in the vise of a V-like collar in the steel plaque it rests on. An erotic poem, beginning ''Insert myself within your story,'' has inspired the placement of a full, robust oval on a steel support that opens like a book; one ''cover'' of the book thrusts directly into the oval. And in the most beautiful work of the series, ''The whole soul summed up when slow we breathe it out,'' Mr. Wilmarth has put a clouded oval, apple-shaped this time, in the center of a sky-blue outer ring of cast glass; the two elements are separated by a void of space.

It's a rare match, that of a sculptor and a poet, and the restrained eloquence of Mr. Wilmarth's work is very affecting. All of the varied elements in this Mallarme extravaganza are on view at the Studio for the First Amendment, 144 Wooster Street (through May 29). The show is accompanied by a beautiful catalogue, produced by Mr. Wilmarth himself, with a first-rate essay on Mallarme by the critic Dore Ashton.

Other shows of interest this week include: Juan Downey (Gallery Schlesinger-Boisante, 822 Madison Avenue at 69th Street): Mr. Downey, a man of many media, is gripped here by a fascination with mirrors as perceptual devices playing back to us both life and art. His set piece is a blown up, black-and-white detail after Velazquez's ''Venus and Her Mirror'' in which Cupid offers Venus not the painted mirror of the Velazquez version, but a live television monitor. On the monitor, we see a 28-minute videotape, a fast-paced ramble on the theme of -well, perception, I suppose. It includes running sight gags (a live Narcissus regarding himself in, then diving into, a pool); travelogue (the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles), interviews (a talk with a mirror salesman) and a brief discourse on Velazquez's ''The Maids of Honor'' in which the Spanish artist's masterly structuring of psychological space is analyzed by the critic Leo Steinberg. A heady divagation, this tape, whose deliberate discontinuities are often annoying. But not dull.

The same can't be said for Mr. Downey's drawings, which play with themes from the two Velazquez paintings and put didactics before pleasure. No thanks. (Through June 5.)

William King (Terry Dintenfass, 50 West 57th Street): Two towering figures, made of cast and plate aluminum, dominate the gallery space. They derive their considerable effect not only from their giant scale but also from the inventive play of abstract and figurative elements.

One figure, ''Patience,'' sits with hands on knees; the realistic face and hands are cast - a new element in Mr. King's work - by the lost wax method, from corrugated cardboard. The rest of the figure is formed of aluminum flats with two long slats for legs, another pair for arms, the back and lap of tilted aluminum planes. The same with the other figure, ''Narcissus,'' which bows, hands clasped, from the waist. More of Mr. King's giant cut-out figures are seen in elegant photographs on the gallery walls, disporting around the country in parks, private lawns, plazas and hospital courtyards.

The wittiest of sculptors, Mr. King has a sharp eye for the idiosyncrasies of human anatomy, and he manages also to imply for his solitary figures a whole social context. (Through next Thursday.)

Braque and His Contemporaries (Saidenberg Gallery, 1018 Madison Avenue at 78th Street): Next year we'll have a chance to see a major Braque show at the Phillips Collection in Washington, but meanwhile, here's a quiet small one in which Braque is also the focus, though not the sole exhibitor.

The range is from a rather saccharine Fauve landscape of 1906 to an almost cosy still life of 1948-1950, ''The Yellow Pot.'' In between, there are a militantly Cubist work of 1919, ''Still Life with Glass, '' another still life of 1947, an almost Van Gogh-like depiction of a vase with flowers, and the show's most impressive painting, ''La Gueridon'' of 1928, a big vertical still life in subdued colors with all the familiar Braque props (a fat guitar, a glass, yellow apples, etc.) in which depth is implied by means of flat overlapping shapes. It shows Braque at his best: a refined colorist poetically concerned with the ambiguities of objects in space.

Braque is in good company here, with works also by Juan Gris, Henri Laurens, Fernand Leger, Andre Masson and Picasso. A good show to browse in. (Through May 29.)"

Gluek, G. "Art: Mallarme poems inspire glass sculpture." May 14, 1982. accessed November 2, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/14/arts/art-mallarme-poems-inspire-glass-sculpture.html?&pagewanted=all