1989

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.

1989 Susanne K. Frantz:

"Conclusion

In the past thirty years the nature of studio glass has changed significantly. No longer is there the feeling of a 'movement' in the evangelical sense of the 1960s. Further a greatly increased interest in the material has eliminated the ability to identify a narrow group of 'glass artists.' Glass has ceased to be the young upstart in the craft world, though it still retains that position within the larger setting of contemporary sculpture.

Although the term studio glass remains convenient, it has gradually become more broadly defined... The idea of the artist as craftsman was an important one which revolutionized the appearance, use, and consideration of glass as an art form. But today artist-designed works in glass are not necessarily made by the same person, or even by one person working alone. And they may be produced in the factory as well as the studio.

Today we are also better informed about the involvement of artists with glass well before 1962. Although glass was only occassionaly considered an appropriate medium for modern art (apart from stained glass designed by painters and architects), there have been artists, usually working in isolation, forming glass in their own studios througout the twentieth century. Thus, as we hope this study has shown, the most recent years of studio glass have amplified the ambitions of those precursors and firmly established glass as a legitimate medium for the artist."

Contemporary Glass. Frantz, S.K. The Corning Museum of Glass. 1989.