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.2008 University of Louisville:"The Hite Art Institute and Department of Fine Arts announce the appointment of several artists to the University of Louisville’s new Sutherland Endowed Chair in Glass. The chair is made possible by a gift from the Sutherland Foundation and a matching grant by the Commonwealth Research Challenge Trust Fund (“Bucks for Brains”).
It is intended to bring both traditional glass artists and artists who are interested in exploring glass as a contemporary art medium to campus to work with students and faculty. Four individual artists and one team of three artists, rather than one individual, will fill the chair its first year. Artists Therman Statom, John Miller, Shane Fero, Jon Clark and the Japanese team of Daisuke Shintani, Densaburo Oku and Atsuko Tajima will come to campus this semester to either deliver public talks or demonstrations of their techniques. Each will showcase a different hot glass technique from flameworking to glass casting. Appointments will rotate in coming years.
Appointments will include artists who have established their reputation working in glass as well as those better known for working in a different medium. As Sutherland chairs, all will use their residency to execute pieces using glass.
A recent review of the work of Therman Statom, who will be the first artist in residence as a Sutherland Chair, asked this question of his work: “Is this glass art or art using glass?”
“This question underlies the strength of the Sutherland Chair and our whole studio art program,” said James Grubola, chair of the fine arts department. “In a post-media age, today’s artists do not want to be confined to a particular material or technique. Our curriculum and the Sutherland Chair program encourages and supports creativity and exploration across media and materials.”
While in residence, Sutherland artists will work in the department’s Cressman Center for Visual Arts located downtown at First and Main Streets.
“Having visiting artists working at the Cressman Center will allow the public to have unprecedented access to watching some of the world’s top artists at work,” said Ché Rhodes, who heads the UofL glass program.
Sutherland Chair presentations:
- Feb. 19, 6:30 p.m. Therman Statom, an important early pioneer of the studio glass movement, cuts, constructs and paints industrially produced plate glass and adds found objects to create visually compelling assemblages. Statom will disucss his work.
- Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m. John Miller, best known for his pop art approach to oversized place settings and Venetian goblets, is a professional glass artist and head of the glass program at Illinois State University. Miller will give a demonstration.
- March 19, 6:30 p.m. Shane Fero, from Penland, NC, is a master of the flameworking process, a technique that allows him to create intimate and highly detailed work that ranges from the whimsical to the surrealistic. He also is president of the Glass Art Society, an international nonprofit organization established to promote the appreciation and development of the glass arts. Fero will give a demonstration.
- April 1. Daisuke Shintani, Densaburo Oku and Atsuko Tajima often work together. They are best known for their unique methods of blowing, casting and painting on glass. They will give a combined demonstration.
- April 6, 5 p.m. Jon Clark has been head of the glass program at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia since 1973. He is well known for his command of the mold-blowing process, which he uses to create experiential installations. Clark will discuss his work."
Unknown. "New endowed chair in glass to provide lectures, demonstrations for students, public." University of Louisville, Kentucky. February 14, 2008. website accessed July 7, 2009. http://php.louisville.edu/news/news.php?news=1095
