1992 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.

1992 Betty Freudenheim:

"SPOTLIGHTS penetrate the translucent interiors and set off sparklike reflections on the surfaces of the art glass on display at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts. "Contemporary Glass Sculpture: Innovative Form and Expression" is one of the most stunning craft exhibitions in this state in recent years.

Pat Kettenring, a curator of the show, said she had tried to include a broad range of glass techniques. The work shown demonstrates not only the intrinsic appeal of glass but also its value as a medium for expressing ideas. Ms. Kettenring and Kiku Fukui, the other curator, selected 42 pieces by nine American, three Japanese, one Swedish and two Czech artists.

Among them is Harvey Littleton. This year marks the 30th anniversary of his creation of a glass-blowing workshop on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. The success of this workshop proved his theory that glass blowing does not require the superheated furnaces of mass production factories, that glass can be a medium for artists to explore in their own studios.

It was the start of the American glass movement. Alumni of the Toledo workshop and Mr. Littleton's follow-up courses at the University of Wisconsin initiated similar glassmaking programs on campuses across the country.

Mr. Littleton creates his distinctive ribbons of striated glass by rotating a rod with a ball of molten glass in the glowing furnace. When the rod is removed, it is swung like a pendulum until the sphere gradually lengthens into an oblong.

"Blue-Ruby Spray" looks as though Mr. Littleton stretched, pulled and twisted his molten glass into looping curves on a carnival taffy-making machine. The segments were sliced and arranged into this flowing ensemble of sinuous lines and hues.

Dale Chihuly, a student in Mr. Littleton's postgraduate program at Wisconsin, continued his glass training in Venice. He was the first American to apprentice at the Venini glass factory on the island of Murano. He is also the founder of Pilchuck, a glass art colony on a hillside overlooking Puget Sound in Washington State.

Snakelike coils with black blossoms encircle a vivid vase in "Cadmium Orange Venetian #493." Mr. Chihuly has carried the excesses of Murano blown glass to new extremes of complexity, color and voluptuous curves.

What a contrast with the quiescent mood of Stephen Dale Edwards's "Silence." Four matte-black heads are partly buried in white sand, the artist's comment on the Persian Gulf war. Features of the fourth face are almost obliterated.

This artist works with glass cast in molds. His "Hunter's Dream" is a masklike image cast in optical glass. As light is diffused through the translucent interior, the solemn features take on an awesome authority.

William Morris's "Artifact Still Life" resembles a find from an archeological dig. This pile of pale blue bones, shells and vases of translucent glass may relate to the contents of the tomb of an ancient Phoenecian glassmaker. Flecks of gold settle like dust on the mottled surfaces.

Bertil Vallien's cast-glass forms also suggest the ruins of vanished civilizations. This Swedish artist sculptures elongated molds in wet sand and lays miniature treasures inside before filling them with molten glass. The oblongs are suspended as tall, motionless pendulums. Each one has the majestic power of a Nordic myth; clues to the stories are hidden within.

Mary Ann (Toots) Zynsky is an American glass artist who works in the Netherlands. The vivid splashes of color of her "Tierra del Fuego" seem to have been painted with a stiff brush with each bristle leaving its mark. The bowl was formed with thin threads of fused glass that resemble dried vermicelli. The outer edges have been manipulated to give the form a slighlty irregular contour. This piece has verve and panache.

There was no glass tradition in Japan when Kyohei Fujita started his career in a factory in the 50's, so he created one. Rather than emulating European glass blowers, he turned to historic lacquerware for inspiration. His elegant small boxes are blown glass layered with gold and platinum foil and flecks of color.

Niyoko Ikata cuts shapes from plate glass and laminates them together into neat stacks. These piles of glass take on the graduated contours of a sea-green shape with a transparent interior. While some artists use this technique to create pseudo vases, she extends her forms into undulating wings. Their spontaneity gives no indication of the slow, meticulous process required to form them.

One wall has 16 variations on a theme: glass bones and wood sticks wrapped with wire and bandages. Michael Aschenbrenner, a Vietnam veteran, said his work was "about healing, not destruction."

Nancy Mee complements the transparency and fragility of glass with rigid metals. Using a printmaking process, she transfers images of Greek goddesses onto plate glass and then bolts them to rusted steel plates. In "Veiled Goddess," a photograph of a skull X-ray is superimposed on the sculptured head, transfiguring its beauty. Her work becomes a metaphor for the relationship between the surface and inner beauty of women in a hard world.

The show runs through April 18. The New Jersey Center for Visual Arts is at 68 Elm Street. Hours are noon to 4 P.M. Monday through Friday and 2 to 4 P.M. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. A video shows the varied glassmaking techniques used by these artists.

Today at 3 P.M., William Warmus, a glass scholar, and Mr. Aschenbrenner, one of the exhibitors, will speak on "New Boundaries for Glass Art.""

Freudenheim, B. "CRAFTS; New reflections abound in glass art." The New York Times. March 15, 1992. accessed September 8, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/15/nyregion/crafts-new-reflections-abound-in-glass-art.html

1992 Chihuly:

"I instantly said, "Yes," when Speight Jenkins called to ask me to design Pelléas and Mélisande. Then I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I had never designed for the theater. One of the allures certainly was the opportunity to work on a grand scale. Over the years my architectural installations had increased in size and now I had the chance to go much bigger. Working on this scale with the extraordinary lighting instruments available in the theater was irresistible. Speight came over to my studio to read the libretto out loud, while we played the CD. When he finished, I was deep in the land of Allemonde and eager to tackle the opera's brutal, murky, erotic power. But first I had to unravel the mystery of Mélisande. Where did she come from? She marries Golaud, but why? She immediately captivates Golaud's little brother Pelléas, but does she love him? Did she lie to Golaud because she was frightened or was she just pathological? Is Mélisande a victim or a vixen? Was it Maeterlinck or Debussy or both who didn't want us to know? The story allowed my imagination to go in many directions and the ambiguity of the opera gave me great freedom. I began to envision immense glass forms on a black glass stage. A giant glass flower - the garden. A red tube - Golaud's broken heart. A pile of yellow glass - Mélisande's hair that was "longer than she." I wanted to suggest the essence of each scene in a way that was far more visual, visceral, intuitive than conceptual. I made drawings on black paper and then went into the hot shop where the glass blowers turned the images into sculptures. We made these objects to scale and placed them in maquettes of the stage. We then photographed them so we could study the options. Speight, Neil Peter Jampolis and Bob Schaub, the technical director, came to the Boathouse and together we spent two days making the decisions about which sets to realize. Naturally we didn't always agree. But as Speight told me in the beginning: "The opera is the most collaborative of all the arts."

—Chihuly"

Chihuly, D. "Artist's Statement" for Seattle Opera's "Pelleas et Melisande" 1993. Accessed November 5, 2009. http://www.chihuly.com/installations/pelleas/statement.html

1992 Speight Jenkins:

"As though it were a normal request of an opera director to a glass artist, in the summer of 1991, I called Dale Chihuly and said, "I would like you to design the sets for Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande. I think your material and sensibilities are exactly right. Are you interested?" Chihuly said, "Yes. Why don't you come over and see me?" Armed with a CD of Pelléas and several books, I went. At the Boathouse, Chihuly's studio on Lake Union, I was taken on a tour by the irrepressible artist and was dumbfounded. I had never in my life imagined that one could do with glass what he has done. By the time we wound our way up the spiral metal stairway in his living quarters, I was convinced that only Dale Chihuly could design our Pelléas. I began to talk to him about the opera, to spin the story and to tell of Debussy and Maeterlinck. Then we listened to the Tower Scene, the end of the scene in the Abyss and the whole next scene. He was so fascinated that we went on to a bit of the hair-pulling scene and some of the final encounter of the lovers. That was enough. Chihuly was hooked. My enthusiasm for Chihuly as set designer, despite his complete inexperience in the theater, came directly from my feelings about the drama and music of Pelléas and Mélisande. It had immediately flashed in my mind when Jim Bailey, the Opera's late marketing director, and I discussed producing Debussy's impressionistic opera that nothing would be better than glass for the sets. Chihuly's preeminence in glass is a given; he has made Seattle an internationally known center for the glass arts. With this fame and his legendary inventiveness, I believed no one could better Pelléas and Mélisande. Chihuly could realize Debussy's own concept of an ideal opera: two associated dreams. No place, nor time. Pelléas and Mélisande is a bit like an onion - peeling away one layer only reveals the multitude of layers underneath. During the course of his life, Debussy supplied reasons as to why. The composer believed that the dream-like atmosphere of Pelléas was far closer to real life than the romantic realism of the operas of his contemporaries. He said, "In Pelléas (the original play by Maurice Maeterlinck), there is evocative language whose sensitivity could be extended into music and the orchestral decor." He loved the symbolist quality of Maeterlinck and felt that he could create the complexity of real people with this text. Through the years audience reaction to Pelléas has not equaled musicians' and critics' evaluation. The premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on April 30, 1902, was moderately successful though the press was divided and certain conservative elements of the public were outraged. Vincent d'Indy, an important composer of the time, wrote probably the most perceptive review. He stated that the crux to understanding the opera was to "find in Pelléas not what one had come to look for, but what the composer had intended to put in it." Even though the opera was given in Paris every season until the beginning of World War II and made its way to every major opera house in the world, its unrelieved subtlety has proved difficult for many in its audience. Pelléas and Mélisande is allusive, illusive and elusive. The text and music allude to countless unspoken ideas and feelings. We must intuit Mélisande's feelings from her words and what the music tells us she is thinking. The illusive quality of the work can also be seen in Mélisande: Does she love Pelléas or not? Finally the elusive point can be made in the reasons behind her lying. Why not tell Golaud that she lost the ring in the well? In this opera the audience must know precisely what the characters are saying. They may not tell you what they are thinking or feeling, but one must know their words for the music and their actions to communicate their true feelings. Having loved Pelléas since my first exposure to it at the Metropolitan in 1960, I felt that part of the problem of making Pelléas accessible to the public could be corrected by supratitles. I also believed that the dreamy sets, which have characterized most Pelléas productions of my lifetime, reinforce a surface reading of the music. They are, in short, too much of a good thing. The public sees a visual spectacle so close to what they are hearing that they become bored. It seemed to me that the very abstract qualities of glass combined with Chihuly's remarkable, indeed unique eye for color would give us what we wanted visually. So we were going to do a glass Pelléas. What on earth did that mean? Pieces of glass on stage? Stagehands in terror lest a wrong move destroy an art object, not just a theatrical prop? Chihuly was concerned about how we could realize his sculptural visions. I explained that we had extraordinarily gifted people who could create virtually any design at the appropriate scale. Robert Schaub, Seattle Opera's technical director, would be responsible for recreating Chihuly's designs for the stage. Chihuly already knew that one of his former students, Margie Jervis, was our talented chief scenic painter. Chihuly wanted to know more about stage lighting so we rented Intiman Theater and then the high school auditorium at Shoreline to show him the possibilities. Working with Chihuly at every step was the director, Neil Peter Jampolis, who has won Tonys and Emmys for a host of lighting and set designs. He has been acclaimed for a great many opera sets and with Fidelio in Seattle in 1991 has had a distinguished beginning as a director. Jampolis had seen Chihuly's one-man show at the Seattle Art Museum in the summer of 1992 and had loved Chihuly's idea for the opera's Forest Scene - a shiny, apparently transparent green plastic material shaped into columns. When Chihuly and Jampolis met, they went over Chihuly's rough sketches and Jampolis explained his ideas for the show. Through their conversations it became clear that Chihuly's design should be abstract, capturing a moment of feeling or perhaps conveying the whole spirit of the scene in one visual creation that would be glass or glass-like. Like the music the sets should be evocative and symbolist, not literal or realistic. Jampolis believes that the crucial moment of mutual understanding came after a spaghetti dinner in the Boathouse when the two of them were washing the dishes. He was suddenly able to communicate clearly to Chihuly what his role should be: Rather than turn himself into a stage designer, Chihuly should look within his own artistic sensibility to find a visual equivalent for each of the scenes. The Opera's duty would be to execute those ideas. At the time of this writing, all the contracts are let and construction is moving forward. Now we can only hope that it will bring forth what we envision. On March 13th we hope that we will lead you to a magical Allemonde, a dramatic and aural experience worthy of Debussy and a visual experience worthy of that master of glass, Dale Chihuly.

—Speight Jenkins, Seattle Opera, 1992" Jenkins, S. "Opera Director's Statement". 1992. http://www.chihuly.com/installations/pelleas/opera.html

2008 Stanford University Show

2008 Ben Marks:

"This summer, with little fanfare, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University borrowed fewer than 20 rather superb works of Contemporary Glass from local collections and put on a show. The reason for this modest endeavor was not to respond to the gargantuan scale of Chihuly at the de Young. Rather, it was to call attention to the connection between Stanford University and the Venetian glass firm of Salviati & Co., whose mosaic murals grace Stanford Memorial Church. Jane Stanford herself gave the Salviati company the commission, for which the Salviati company gave Mrs. Stanford some 200 glass vessels as a thank-you gift.

As conceits go, this one's predictably precious, but Stanford is not the only august institution of higher learning to be somewhat taken with itself, so it's in good company. More interesting than the self-congratulatory reason for the show is the art and, like it or not, how this exhibition compares to the three-ring circus to the north.

The pieces in Contemporary Glass are displayed in the circular Oshman Family Rotunda (the balcony overlooking the Rodin sculptures) and the long H. L. Kwee Galleria (the second-floor passageway adjacent to the main galleries of contemporary art). The show begins at the nexus of both spaces with a hand-painted, lampworked piece from 1995 by Ginny Ruffner. Like many of Ruffner's sculptures, this one, called Double Dutch, is built on an open armature of glass, which, in this case, resembles a six-sided diamond pointing up. Attached wherever it seems convenient and aesthetically sensible is a heart, fish hook, picture frame, flower, and pair of frontward and backward capital Ds, whose voids have been filled in with almost naive copies of the couple in the famous Jan van Eyck painting from 1434 called The Arnolfi Portrait. Never mind that van Eyck was not Dutch; Ruffner is more interested in poetry than precision. The surface of Ruffner's work is the thing that continues to get me. I just love the way her colors alternately hide or accentuate the sand-pitted surface of her fragile, occasionally unwieldy, forms.

Just down the hall is a lovely piece by Richard Royal, who spent a couple of decades (or maybe it just felt like that) as a gaffer on various Chihuly teams. Part of the Relationship Series, this 1992 work consists of a pair of bowls, one a soft blue, the other an equally quiet green, whose bases, if you can imagine this, are shaped like snaking tails or tendrils. The tails face each other so that one bowl rests on its rim while the other is open at the top. In the middle, simultaneously being caressed by and holding these two mirror images together, is a traditionally shaped purple vase, suspended in space by the embrace of the green and blue tendrils. Like much of Royal's work, this deceptively simple piece does not call undue attention to itself. Certainly there are countless more fantastic examples of these sorts of snaking shapes, in a shamelessly varied range of colors, up at the de Young, but Royal is not going for volume here. For him, it's quite enough, thank you, to do one thing with modest perfection.

Toward the end of the hall is one of two works in the show by Richard Marquis. This one is a teapot from 1977, which was selected, no doubt, because of Marquis's use of murrine, which are slender threads of glass that have been collected and then fused to reveal patterns or designs when they are cut into cross sections (picture sushi, with white glass for the rice, purple glass for the tuna, green for the cucumber, etc.) Marquis's murrine designs lean to hearts, stars, and checkerboards, which he applies to his vessels when they are still hot. As the vessel expands and is deliberately distorted, the murrine become blurry and irregularly shaped, all of which gives the teapot the look of something you might find in the kitchen cupboard of one of the Freak Brothers.

Other pieces to spend some time with include Yellow and Ferrari Red Palla by Benjamin Moore, who has also done his time working for Chihuly, and two untitled forms by Lino Tagliapietra, the Venetian master who taught a number of the artists here more than a few of the most important secrets of the Venetian glass trade. Tagliapietra's pieces, both from 1997, have a mid-century-modern sensibility that's unique in this group. The pink and blue colors are deliberately dull while the shapes (the blue one is weirdly tall while the pink lozenge-shaped piece feels vaguely feminine) are just plain odd. The vertical black pinstriping on the surfaces of the pieces completes their retro feel, but it's the surface beneath the surface of these curious objects that catches you by surprise. Using a technique called battuto, Tagliapietra has carved lines resembling the marks for a woodcut into small sections of his pieces. The rest of the surface below the pinstriping has been painstakingly chipped away to give the objects the look of a pair ancient hammered copper urns.

The Chihulys in the Rotunda are handsome enough, although by now we have been well trained by the artist to expect a great deal more, as is the Petroglyph Vessel from 1990 by William Morris (another Chihuly factory alum). But the objects you are most likely to fall in love with are the bowls from 1995 and 2006 by Mary Ann (Toots) Zynsky. Unlike Ruffner, who paints in a fairly traditional manner on her surfaces, Zynsky's pieces are all paint, built entirely from the wire-like threads of pure colored glass that Marquis and others use to create murrine. Instead of forming her threads into rods that are meant to be sliced, heated, and then expanded, Zynsky works with the threads themselves, painting in three dimensions with their colors and then slumping and fusing her compositions into organic, bowl- or basket-like shapes. Resembling nests created by a bird with a highly developed sense of color and a serious case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, Zynsky's work remains singular amid the gloss of much contemporary glass. Her pieces don't shine, but oh how they glow.

Contemporary Glass runs indefinitely at Cantor Arts Center, Lomita Drive and Museum Way, Stanford. Admission is free; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. For information visit museum.stanford.edu or call 650-723-4177."

Marks, B. "Contemporary glass at Stanford." August 31, 2008. accessed August 12, 2009 http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/article.jsp?essid=23258. KQED, Northern California Public Broadcasting.

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:

"

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

Bonhams 20th Century Decorative Arts. New York, 17 Dec 2008

After seeing the glass-only auction results from Bonhams May sale, I wanted to see how glass did at Bonhams last year. Certain artists like Littleton were sold at the 20th Century Decorative Arts sale last December in New York and weren't in the Contemporary Glass sale this year. I also wanted to see what prices were doing, even though it's only been 5 months since this 2008 sale.
Lot No: 4360

A pair of Murano glass leaf-form sconces

1950s
unsigned
height 17in (43.2cm)

Sold for $2,160 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4425

Jaroslav Svoboda (Czecholslovakia, born 1938)

Sculpture, 1983
glass,
inscribed 83.
height 11½in 29.2cm); diameter 5½in (14cm)

Estimate: $1,000 - 1,500 Lot No: 4422

Concetta Mason (American, born 1950)

Spun Violet, 1988
blown, cut and polished, sandblasted and enameled glass,
inscribed 1988 SE 2984 SPUN VIOLET.
dimensions 16½in x 9½in x 9½in (41.9cm x 24.1cm x 24.1cm)

Sold for $1,680 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Lot No: 4448

Maurice Heaton (American, born Switzerland, 1900-1989)

Three Untitled Platters, 1964-1967
blown and enameled glass,
each monogrammed MH.
lengths 12¼in and 8in (31.1cm and 20.3cm); diameter 8½in (21.6cm)

Estimate: $800 - 1,200 (unsold)
Lot No: 4445

Pavel Hlava (Czechoslovakian, born 1924)

Vase
blown glass
inscribed P. Hlava / Czechoslovakia.
height 6 1/8in (15.5cm); width 7 7/8in (20cm)

Sold for $1,920 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4456

Dana Zàmecnikovà (Czechoslovakian, born 1945)

Lovers
painted, etched and engraved laminated glass.
height 16¾in (42.5cm); length 18¼in (46.4cm); depth 7¾in (19.7cm)

Sold for $4,800 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4469

Dominic Labino (American, 1910-1987)

Two Vessels, 1970-1975
blown and internally decorated glass, each inscribed Labino one dated 8-1970 the other 8-1975.
heights 6½in and 4½in (16.5cm and 11.5cm) `

Estimate: $3,000 - 5,000 (unsold)
Lot No: 4478

Harvey K. Littleton (American, born 1922)

Optic Glass #6, 1979
blown glass,
base inscribed Harvey K. Littleton, 1979.
height 12in (30.5cm); length 21½in (54.5cm); depth 7¾in (19.7cm)

Sold for $9,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4477

Harvey K. Littleton (American, born 1922)

Amber Loop, 1972
cast glass,
inscribed Harvey K. Littleton 1972 131/150
originally purchased with a signed and witnessed certificate of authenticity.
height 5½in (14cm)

Sold for $1,200 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Lot No: 4481

Harvey K. Littleton (American, born 1922)

Three Glass Arches, 1975
blown glass,
each inscribed Harvey K. Littleton 1975.
dimensions range from 5¼in x 6in to 9½in x 8in (13.3cm x 15.2cm to 24.1cm x 20.4cm)

Sold for $3,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4500

Pino Signoretto (Italian, born 1944)

Embrace
internally decorated glass,
inscribed Pino Signoretto and Made for Julia.
height 46½in (118.1cm)

Sold for $3,300 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4508

Mary Shaffer (American, born 1947)

Fired Twice, 1995
slumped, cast glass and metal.
height 5in (12.7cm); width 8in (20.3cm)

Sold for $1,200 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4502

A Lino Tagliapietra Saturneo Plate and Bowl

circa 1988
blown glass,
each inscribed Taglipietra Angelin Effetre International / Murano Italy 1988 and numbered 59/100 and 52/100 respectively.
diameter of plate 9½in (49.5cm); height of bowl 8½in (21.6cm)

Sold for $4,800 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4515

Mary Schaffer (American, born 1947)

Double, 1999
glass, metal.
height 19in (48.2cm); width 5in (12.7cm); depth 11in (27.9cm)

Estimate: $6,000 - 9,000 (unsold)
Lot No: 4516

Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)

White eight-piece Seaform with black lip wrap
blown glass
inscribed Chihuly.
dimensions of largest. 15in x 10in x 6in (38.1cm x 25.4cm x 15.2cm)

Sold for $6,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4518

William Morris (American, born 1957)

Rython: Etruscan Horse, 1999
cast glass,
inscribed William Morris 1999.
height 15in (38.1cm); width 12in (30.5cm); depth 5½in (14cm)

Sold for $21,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Lot No: 4514

Mary Ann (Toots) Zynsky (American, born 1951)

Vase
fused glass threads,
monogrammed Z
height 11½in (29.3cm); length 20½in (52.1cm); depth 13in (33cm)

Estimate: $4,000 - 6,000 (unsold)
Lot No: 4511

Harvey K. Littleton (American, born 1922)

Double Arch, 1986
internally decorated, blown, cased, cut and polished glass
each inscribed Harvey K. Littleton 4 -1986.
dimensions 9in x 14in and 6½in x 16in (22.9cm x 35.5cm and 16.5cm x 40.6cm)

Estimate: $7,000 - 10,000 (unsold)

Lot No: 4540

Stanislav Libensky (Czechoslovakian, 1921-2002) and Jaroslava Brychtova (Czechoslovakian, born 1924)

Taking Off, 1998-2000
cast glass
inscribed LIBINSKY-BRYCHTOVA 1998-00
height 16in (40.6cm); width 33in (83.8cm); depth 22in (55.9cm)
Sold for $57,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium Lot No: 4531

Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)

Yellow five-piece Seaform, 1996
blown glass,
inscribed Chihuly 96.
dimensions of largest 6½in x 12in x 8in (16.5cm x 30.5cm x 8in 20.3cm)
Sold for $6,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 16154. Bonhams 20th Century Decorative Arts. website accessed May 26, 2009. http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=Catalogue&iSaleNo=16154

Bonham's Contemporary Glass Auction, May 2009

The Bonhams (first ever) Contemporary and Modern Glass Auction held on May 19, about a week ago, hardly made a splash in the larger world of art news. For this auction, there wasn't much outside interest; most press available online came from the artists in the auction themselves and from the local papers that supported them (see the Selkirk article on Annica Sandstrom and David Kaplan, whose commissioned works did not sell).

It was reported by Bonhams that this auction came on the heels of the 2007 sale of a Brychtova and Libensky which reached a record amount at auction for a glass piece. But what do record prices really mean except that there is someone with that much money to spend, and maybe the article should be about the buyer and not the piece of art, because astronomical prices paid for works of art seem to arouse our interest in the mind and lifestyle of the buyer rather than the art? So why is glass being marketed in this tedious manner? For glass, studio glass especially, this kind of hype is uncalled for, but maybe that is the only hype an auction house knows...and that is what is unfortunate for art in a market run by auction houses. But while the auction house perpetuates the stereotype that art is about money and not expression, it does give anyone the opportunity to bid on a piece of art that they like and want to own, whereas they might not have that opportunity in a gallery or elsewhere.

But who decided that what studio glass needed was to follow the trajectory of other types of contemporary art? As glass follows the path of other mediums, mainly painting and sculpture, and goes from main stream gallery to auction house, does it lose some of its identity (the hot shop, the performance, the technicality, the years of training to become a master, the history of the factory) to the hegemony of the art market?

I was not surprised that only 54% of the pieces sold. I was surprised that the artists commissioned to submit works did not sell very well, and most sold only one out of two pieces if at all, and those for extremely low prices. This was a grand experiment, however, and more experiments are called for to find out what will work to find appreciative homes for the art and to help artists make a living.

From the Bonhams website:
"On Tuesday 19th May Bonhams, in association with Dan Klein Associates, will be holding its inaugural sale of Modern and Contemporary Glass, the first of its kind in the UK. The decision follows the sale in 2007 of a piece of contemporary glass by Bonhams in New York, a cast glass sculpture by Czech artist Stanislav Libensky, which achieved the world record price of $400,000.

The preview at Bonhams in New Bond Street will coincide with the major contemporary decorative arts event of the year ‘Collect, organised by the Crafts Council and held at the Saatchi Gallery on King’s Road, Chelsea. Prices are expected to range from £500 to £15,000'

Mark Oliver, Bonhams Director of 20th Century Decorative Arts, firmly believes “The sale in May is an exciting first in Britain, and a marvelous opportunity for collectors of post-war glass to secure some key pieces, many of which will be one-off examples produced exclusively for this sale. Our working relationship with Dan Klein Associates coupled with Bonhams’ International network has meant that the profile of the sale is likely to attract many keen bidders from around the world.”

LEADING ARTISTS TO MAKE WORK SPECIFICALLY FOR THE AUCTION

As a special feature of the Bonhams auction eighteen artists, some emerging, some firmly established, have been invited to make work for the auction. The established artists include Alison Kinnaird whose installation is a feature of the Scottish Parliament building and Peter Furlonger, who is known for his exquisite lettering on glass. Among the emerging artists are three recent graduates from the Royal College of Art, Heike Brachlow, Sabrina Cant and Joseph Harrington, all of whom have already exhibited widely.

The body of the sale will include glass dating from 1950 to the present day with work from American and European artists. Among the earliest pieces included in the sale are a rare vase designed by Piero Fornasetti for the Venetian firm of S.A.L.I.R and two experimental Isle of Wight pieces.

“I was first attracted to the whole area of contemporary glass in the mid 1970s”, recalls Dan Klein, of Dan Klein Associates. “Then it seemed different from any glass I had ever seen. It was exciting, innovative and I felt here was the beginning of something new that had great potential for development. I was not alone in my enthusiasm and new ideas in glass spread like wild fire from America to Europe, the Far East and Australia.”

The thirty years between than and now have seen more artistic and technical innovation than perhaps any other area of the arts. Contemporary glass plays a significant role and has earned its place in art history with various museums around the world devoted solely to the medium. As the collecting public becomes more aware of the current state of the art along with its brief but exciting history it is exactly the right moment to hold the first auction in Great Britain devoted to this art form. Mark Oliver’s invitation to Dan Klein Associates to collaborate with Bonhams was enthusiastically accepted and the auction promises to offer a mixture of excellent new and historical work”

Artists began working with glass in a studio as opposed to a factory environment in the 1960s. Since then the impact of artists working in glass worldwide has been nothing short of amazing. Artists such as Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova in the Czech Republic, Dale Chihuly in the United States, Erwin Eisch in Germany and Bertil Vallien in Sweden (all of whose work is included in the sale) are all in major museum collections, with Dale Chihuly’s chandelier extravaganza the centre piece of the entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The sale will include work by some of Britain’s best-known artists in glass such as David Reekie, Anna Dickinson and Steven Newell. All over Britain from John O’Groats to Land’s End artists have set up studios and the response to their work has been enthusiastic. In Britain The Contemporary Glass Society is a thriving organisation as is the Guild of Glass Engravers. In 2004 The V&A Museum, opened the new Merit Rausing Gallery devoted to international contemporary glass, next door to the older glass gallery. Jennifer Opie, senior curator of Glass & Ceramics at the V&A at the time, wrote in her book ‘Contemporary International glass’ (published to coincide with the opening of the new gallery) “In the last two decades, glass has come of age as a material for a global art form. There is an increasing conviction that it is the material for the future – for art, and for science.”

This is the first collaboration between Dan Klein Associates (Dan Klein and Alan Poole) and Bonhams, although Dan Klein is no stranger to Bonhams, having been International Executive Director of Phillips from 1998-2001 prior to its merger with Bonhams. Dan Klein Associates has been involved in staging major exhibitions including two Venice Glass Biennales ‘Venezia Aperto Vetro’ in 1996 and 1998, 21st Century British Glass in association with Daniel Katz Limited in 2005 and Lucio Bubacco’s extraordinary installation entitled ‘Eternal Temptation’ at SOFA Chicago in 2008."

Bonhams. "World Record Of $400,000 Contemporary Glass At Bonhams Triggers First Modern & Contemporary Glass Sale In Britain" website accessed May 26, 2009. http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?Screen=HeadlineDetails&iHeadlineNo=4054

From the Wall Street Journal:
"Bonhams on May 19 will hold an auction of contemporary glass objects. The catalog cover features a vessel formed from threads of bright color, "More Tropical Chaos" (1999), by American artist Toots Zynsky (estimate: £8,000-£10,000). The auction illustrates the enormous variety of the handmade glass market -- from the purely aesthetic to objects that make more of a statement, such as British artist David Reekie's "Mindless Technology" (2003), a group of four helpless-looking glass robots (estimate: £6,000-£7,000)."

Studer, Margaret. "Combining Craftsmanship and Contemporary Design." May 15, 2009. The Wall Street Journal. Accessed May 26, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124231769595420031.html

HERE'S A FEW OF THE AUCTION RESULTS: I've inserted post-auction updates into this Bonhams pre-auction press release in square brackets [-], and I've converted from GBP to USD using the conversion rate of May 26, 2009 of 1 GBP to 1.59541 USD. -ABJ

"Bonhams in association with Dan Klein Associates is excited to announce the first sale of modern and contemporary glass to take place in the UK on Tuesday 19 May 2009 which will be on view at the same time as ‘Collect’ here in London.

Please find enclosed a complimentary catalogue for the sale, if you would like further information, condition reports or would like to register for the sale please contact one of the department, details below.

The 164 lot sale [of which 54% of works sold during the auction] encompasses works from glass artists worldwide, made between 1950 to the present day including Italian artists and producers include
Lucio Bubacco [Lot 19, goblet, 1995, sold $11,478],
Dino Martens [Lot 76, sculptural bottle, 1954, not sold. Lot 77, blown glass vase, 1950, sold $3,826],
[Gian Paolo] Martinuzzi [Lot 78, clear sphere on drift wood base, 1985, not sold. Lot 79, clear bowl on drift wood base, 1985, sold $2678. Lot 80 clear panel drift wood base, 1985, not sold],
[Archimede] Seguso [Lot 111, Merletto leaf bowl, 1952, not sold. Lot 113, rare Merletto vase, sold $9,947],
Barovier and Toso [Lot 4, stylized bird form vase, 1950, sold $1,817. Lot 5, Vetro Barbarico, tapered vase, 1950, sold $1,626. Lot 6, vase, 1960, sold $2,104. Lot 7, Lenti vase, 1940, sold $1722. Lot 8, tall vase, 1965, not sold],
Fulvio Bianconi [Lot 10, rare vase, 1950, not sold. Lot 11, Venini Spicchi vase, 1950, sold $1,626. Lot 12, Venini Spicchi vase, 1950, sold $1,243. Lot 13, Venini Pezzato, 1951, sold $8,034], and
Venini [of 12 lots under Venini, 9 sold],

as well as other European and Scandanavian works by
Bengt Edenfalk [Lot 36, Talata vase, 1960, sold $1,913. Lot 37, Iitala vase, 1962, sold $1,339. Lot 38, Talatta vase, 1960, sold $689],
Mieke Groot [Lot 44, mold blown free formed vase, 1987, not sold. Lot 45, mold blown free form vase, 1987, not sold.],
Jirí Harcuba [Lot 50, rare charger with deer, 1959, sold $4,973. Lot 51, 'Zak' engrave panel, 2008, sold $669],
Klaus Moje [Lot 85, mosaic bowl, 1989, not sold] and
Stanislav Libensky [Libensky and Brychtova, Lot 73, large cast glass sculpture 'Queen', sold $17,217], amongst others.

From America there will be works by
Dale Chihuly [Lot 22 (above), soft cylinder, 1992, sold $13,391. Lot 23, sea form, date ?, sold $5,739. Lot 24, sea form 3 piece, 1987, sold $4,975],
Toots Zynsky [Lot 137, "More Tropical Chaos" vessel form, 1999, sold $17,217.],
William Morris [Lot 81, "Stonehenge" sculptural vase, 1984, sold $21,999],
Steven Newell [Lot 94, glass charger 'King's Counsel', 1985, not sold. Lot 95, 'King's Counsel" series vessel, 1985, sold $2,582],
Sam Herman [Lot 52, vase, 1971, sold $1,052. Lot 53, bowl, 1975, sold $1,913. Lot 54, form, 1979, not sold],
Steve Klein [Lot 63, kiln-formed sculpture, 1979, not sold] and
Danny Lane [Lot 69, irregular spun glasses 'Bass n Flute', 1990, not sold].

Alongside Australian glass by
Giles Bettison [Lot 9, murrine vessel, 1996, sold $3,061],
Gerry King [Lot 65, large steel/glass sculpture "Toledo Blade 65/06", date ?, not sold],
Nick Mount [Lot 89, 'Female Nude', 1992, not sold],
Brian Hirst [Lot 61, 'Cycladic Series-Guardian II' blown and cast vessel, 1990, not sold. Lot 62, votive vessel, 1990, not sold] and
Ann Robinson from New Zealand [Lot 106, cast vessel, 1990, not sold].

As well as pieces by Japanese artists
Etsuko Nishi [Lot 96, pate-de-verre vessel, 1996, sold $8,608],
Kyohei Fujita [Lot 43, square mold blown box and cover, 1985, sold $5,739],
Naoko Sato [Lot 112, 'Transisiton' cast and kiln form glass, 1999, sold $1,913] and
Keiko Mukaide [Lot 75, vessel form, 1997, not sold].

From the UK there will be amongst others works by
Tessa Clegg [Lot 25, lost wax cast glass vessel form, 1998, sold $4,782. Lot 26 (shown above), lost wax cast glass 'Play box III', sold $5,739. Lot 27, lost wax cast glass form, sold $4,209],
Matthew Curtis [Lot 29, glass sculpture, 2005, not sold],
David Reekie [Lot 102, 'Unimpressed' sculpture, 1991, not sold. Lot 103, 'Mindless Technology, figural glass group, 2003, not sold],
Anna Dickinson [Lot 34, vessel, 1999, sold $8,608. Lot 35, vessel, 1992, sold $$8,608 as well],
Patrick Reyntiens O.B.E [Lot 107, 2 commissioned leaded glass panels, 1989, sold $3,443] and
Richard Morrell [Lot 93, kiln cast sculpture, 1990, sold $8,608].

The sale will culminate with a section of 26 new or recent works by 15 British based artists asked to consign works for the sale by Dan Klein.
They are
Karen Akester [Lot 138, 'Bug Boy' sculptural figure, 2009, sold $1,434. Lot 139, 'Rocket Boy' sculptural figure, 2009, sold $1,148],
Heike Brachlow [Lot 140, cast glass sculpture, 2009, not sold. Lot 141, double cast glass sculpture, 2009, sold $5,356],
Sabrina Cant [Lot 142, kiln cast sculpture, 2009, sold $11,478. Lot 143, kiln cast and concrete sculpture, 2009, not sold],
Suresh Dutt [Lot 144, cast glass and panels, 2006, sold $7,652. Lot 145, cast glass form, 2009, not sold], Fiaz Elson [Lot 146, 2 part sculpture, 2008, sold $9,182. Lot 147, 2 part sculpture, 2006, not sold],
Peter Furlonger [Lot 148, vessel, 2009, sold $2,009. Lot 149, cast charger, 2009, sold $1,626], Stephen Gilles and Kate Jones [Lot 150, sculptural bowl, 2009, not sold],
Joseph Harrington, [Lot 151, cast glass sculpture, 2009, not sold. Lot 152, cast glass sculpture, 2009, sold $1,339],
Jonathan Harris [Lot 153, cameo vase, 2009, not sold. Lot 154, cameo vase, 2009, not sold],

Alison Kinnaird M.B.E [Lot 158, lit glass panel, 2009, not sold. Lot 159 (with Dante Marioni), engraved glass flask, 2007, sold $1,243],
Karl Harron [Lot 155, glass sculpture, 2009, sold $4,782. Lot 156, glass sculpture, 2009, sold $4,974],
Clare Henshaw [Lot 157, vessel, 2007, sold $2,678],
Carl Nordbruch [Lot 160, blown glass sculpture, 2009, sold $3,826. Lot 161, blown glass sculptrue, 2009, sold $3,826],
Annica Sandström and David Kaplan [Lot 162, blown glass on metal stand, 2006, not sold. Lot 163, blown glass on metal stand, 2006, not sold] and
Anthony Scala [Lot 164, 3 part sculpture, 2009, sold $13,773]. "

Bonhams. "Modern and Contemporary Glass May 19 New Bond Street". website accessed May 26, 2009. http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=Design1860GlassSale

Photos: http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r