Glass Today: American Studio Glass from Cleveland Collections

June 22 - September 14, 1997

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The latest expressions in the ancient artistic medium of glass will be celebrated in a major museum survey of works by contemporary glass artists in the United States. Glass Today: American Studio Glass from Cleveland Collections, organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and taking place in Cleveland only, will be the CMA's main summer exhibition. Glass Today opens June 22 in the main exhibition galleries and will remain on view through September 14, 1997. Admission is free.

Studio glass, a relatively young artistic field that has come into its own over the past 30 years, melds a quality of production once possible only in large commercial glass factories with the creative vision and spontaneity of a single-artist studio setting. As the new art form has bloomed, Cleveland collectors have been at the forefront in supporting studio glass artists. Their collections--and this exhibition--demonstrate the great variety and quality of glass art being created today.

The visual array in store for visitors is as diverse as the seventy artists whose works have been gathered. A sample of the nearly 150 works to be exhibited: Howard Ben Tré's monumental abstract cast glass and metal sculptures; bowls made by Toots Zynsky of red, green, blue, yellow, and black glass fibers; Ginny Ruffner's disturbing, vividly painted human figure; Mace and Kirkpatrick's seductive, golden two-foot-tall pear; William Morris' recollections of ancient drinking vessels and funerary jars; and the range of Dale Chihuly's work from his cylindrical "blanket series" vases to his shell-like "sea forms." Public programs for Glass Today include lectures and glassmaking demonstrations by artists from the east and west coasts as well as from northeast Ohio's glassmaking centers.

Glass has been used to make functional vessels for at least 2,000 years. But, although some of the objects in Glass Today are reminiscent of traditional functional bowls or vases, none were intended for normal household use. They may be vessel-like sculptures, or they may bear no resemblance at all to vessels, and may be identified more easily as two- or three-dimensional sculptures or paintings in which glass is just one of the artistic materials.

The famous glass makers of a hundred years ago, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Emile Gallé, and René Lalique, for example, all headed factories devoted to the production of glass which they either designed personally, or had made under their personal supervision, using large quantities of raw materials. Studio glass, which is the focus of this show, is created by single individuals, or, at most, a small number of people working together, who both conceive their works of art and make them.

The Seattle, Washington, area, where Dale Chihuly heads the Pilchuck Glass School, has emerged as the major center of American studio glassmaking. Also important are the Providence area, as home to the Rhode Island School of Design which graduated Chihuly and many others of these artists; the North Carolina region around the Penland School of Crafts; Madison, Wisconsin, and other midwest cities where university glassmaking programs took hold in the 1970s. Northeast Ohio has for many years educated artists in glassmaking techniques at Kent State University, where the department of glass studies has been led by Henry Halem since 1969, and at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where Brent Kee Young heads the glass department. The high degree of interest in glass among artists and collectors in the region is due at least in part to Cleveland's proximity to Toledo, where two glassblowing workshops in 1962 (sponsored by the Toledo Museum of Art), jointly led by long-time Johns-Manville Fiber Glass scientist Dominick Labino and ceramic artist Harvey Littleton, gave rise to the contemporary studio glass movement.

The earliest works in the show reveal a time of learning and experimentation, sometimes betraying the artists' previous training in another medium. Cleveland artist Edris Eckhardt's early cast glass sculptures, including the horse's head and woman's head on view, are unmistakable to anyone familiar with her treatment of human or animal subjects using clay. Moving through the exhibition, one realizes how artists over time used their increasing experience with the medium of glass and the myriad techniques of molding and finishing it to create highly original works which capitalized on glass's unique properties.

Some collectors, such as Francine and Benson Pilloff, have avidly pursued the glass medium, acquiring American and European works as well as examples from the Yoruba culture (West Africa), including a king's headdress decorated with colored glass beads. Other collectors, for example Helen and David Kangesser, collect glass along with other varieties of contemporary art.

Henry H. Hawley, organizer of the show, has served in the Cleveland museum's curatorial ranks since the early 1960s, overseeing the areas of American and European decorative arts and sculpture since 1600. As such, his acquisitions for the museum have ranged from Bernini sculptures to neoclassical marbles to Sèvres vases, and include many of the museum's works in glass on view in the current exhibition. Glass Today is the first CMA exhibition devoted entirely to glass. Hawley answers the question "why glass?" in his introduction in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition:

...the nature of the material itself, its sparkle and brilliant color, its malleability in a molten state that can be adapted to suggest organic forms, and the variety of techniques, and hence results, that can be employed in the creation of a diverse range of works of art. In short, glass affords a wide variety of visual responses, a factor that makes it attractive both to artists who choose it as an expressive medium and to collectors who choose to make it a part of their environments.

Robert P. Bergman, the Cleveland museum director, has watched Hawley nurture the project from a kernel of an idea into a major exhibition. Bergman commented:

The CMA has historically had a broad approach in acquiring and exhibiting art of diverse media and cultures. In the past several decades glass has emerged as a new and vital medium utilized by artists of many different points of view. Cleveland is blessed to have a group of discerning collectors who have given our community an enviable concentration of glass collections. The CMA is delighted to present the first opportunity for everyone to marvel at the accomplishments of both artists and collectors alike. That a number of works in the exhibition were created by artists of our region furthers our goal to present the work of Cleveland-area artists in the context of national or international settings. Many thanks to all of the collectors for their generosity and participation.

All 147 Glass Today objects will be illustrated in color in the catalogue which will be the lasting record of this show. In addition to the photographs, the book will have Hawley's historical introduction, illustrated with examples from CMA's own glass collection, brief notes about the artists, and a checklist of the show. It will be available in the Museum Store for $30.

Glass Today is a free exhibition, thanks in part to the following who have contributed through the Glass Today Leadership Gifts Committee: Annie and Mike Belkin, Rosalie and Mort Cohen, Ann and Robert Friedman, Joan Yellen Horvitz, Helen and David Kangesser, Cathy Pollard and Alan Markowitz, M.D., Francine and Benson Pilloff, Cindy and Tom Riley, Dan K. and Linda Rocker Silverberg, two anonymous donors, and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. The Leadership Gifts Committee has been ably led by Francine Pilloff, Chair of the Exhibition Advisory Committee. Promotional support is provided by Northern Ohio LIVE and 89.7 WKSU.

Related sites offer more information: Dale Chihuly and the Pilchuck Glass School.

Glass Today Programs

Seattle-based glass artist Dale Chihuly headlines a banner group of artists and glass connoisseurs from coast to coast taking part in Glass Today events at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Chihuly is best known for his extraordinary vessel-like "sea forms" of blown glass in brilliant and subtle hues. He is scheduled to speak on July 9 at 8 pm as one of five Wednesday evening lectures. Also scheduled to lecture are Howard Ben Tré, the Providence (Rhode Island) sculptor in cast glass (June 25, 6 pm); the female duo of Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, also based in Seattle (July 2, 6 pm); Henry Halem, long-time head of glass studies at Kent State University, giving a tour of the exhibition and talking about techniques (July 16, 7 pm); Joyce Scott, creator of complex jewelry of glass beads and fiber (August 6, 6 pm); and Sara Jane Pearman, the Cleveland museum's slide librarian and an expert in beads (August 20, 7 pm). Tickets are required for the Chihuly lecture at $12 ($5 for CMA members); these tickets will be available in the museum store beginning June 8. All other events are free and do not require tickets.

Ruth T. Summers, director of the Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville, North Carolina, will serve as moderator of a one-time-only panel discussion, "Issues in Modern Glass," convening on Wednesday evening, August 13, at 7 pm. Panelists will be artist Henry Halem; Cleveland collector Francine Pilloff; Tom Riley of the Riley Hawk Glass Art Galleries; and Kenneth R. Trapp, Curator-in-Charge at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Visitors will be able to watch glass blowing and bead making on the museum grounds on Saturday and Sunday, August 9-10, from 1 to 4 pm. Pittsburgh glass artist Bob Sinsale will be working the furnace, assisted by Benson Pilloff.

On July 9 at 7 pm, the museum's indoor garden court will be the setting of a premiere of dance by Frankie Hart, dance lecturer at Case Western Reserve University. This will be the latest of several performances of new choreography Hart has created, to critical acclaim, inspired by works of art on view at CMA. She will be joined by members of the CWRU dance department.

CMA educators will give numerous free afternoon and evening gallery talks in July and August; call 216/421-7340, ext. 484, for recorded details. Families can participate in intergenerational drop-in workshops on "Color, Light and Form" every Wednesday evening in July and August at 5-7:30 pm.

Collectors Represented In Glass Today

Lenders:

Jules and Fran Belkin
Mike and Annie Belkin
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Debordeau
Virginia Q. Foley
Ann and Robert Friedman
Ester Goldsmith
Helen and David Kangesser
Ralph and Terry Kovel
Lorrie and Alvin Magid
Alan Markowitz, M.D., and Cathy Pollard
Francine and Benson Pilloff
Clarine and Harvey Saks
Mr. and Mrs. James A. Saks
Dan K. and Linda Rocker Silverberg
Heinz and Elizabeth Wolf
Private Collections
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Captions for works illustrated here:

	Purple Conical Intersection, 1985 Harvey K. Littleton (American, b. 1922) blown glass, 9-1/2 x 9-7/16 inches Helen and David Kangesser Collection
	Lavender Persian Set, 1988 Dale Chihuly (American, b. 1941) blown glass, 8-1/4 x 22-5/8 inches Lorrie and Alvin Magid Collection
	Tunnel of Love Wears Heartbreak Pajamas, 1989 Ginny Ruffner (American, b. 1952) lamp-worked glass and paint, 11-15/16 x 24-7/8 inches Francine and Benson Pilloff Collection
	Untitled, 1969 Edris Eckhardt (American, b. 1907) cast glass, 12-3/16 x 8-5/16 inches Ralph and Terry Kovel Collection