Glass Today By American Studio Artists

The excitement of contemporary American studio glass, with works ranging from the monumental to the minute, is presented in Glass Today. Twenty-six important artists, including Dale Chihuly, Dan Dailey, Ginne Ruffner, Marvin Lipofsky and Sonja Blomdahl, are featured in this exhibition catalogue. These artists represent a vibrant cross section of a new and mature generation of American glass artists who work with glass as sculpture; they are concerned with issues of solids and voids, envelopes, layers, color veils and illusions of space. Their subject matter ranges from the abstract to the fantastic.

A unique exploration of the question, can art be fashioned out of glass? Analysis of the philosophical and circumstantial factors that reveal the early history of the movement and the clash of ambitions and power that marked the relationship between the worlds of so-called crafts and high art. 81 colour & 47 b/w illustrations

The American studio glass movement can be traced to 1962, when Harvey Littleton, a professor of ceramics at the University of Wisconsin, had a dream to alter molten glass into unique forms in a studio setting and teach his techniques. For the first time in its 3,500-year history, glass production, that had been limited to factory settings, moved to the artists' studios and became a part of an academic program in the fine arts. Since then, glass has become the fastest growing studio art medium throughout the world. This book takes us from the first workshop in a Toledo, Ohio garage, to reveal decade by decade the unprecedented growth of studio glass. Through high-quality, detailed images and stories, this retrospective of 50 top artists is a collector's dream. Noted art dealer Ferdinand Hampson offers a unique perspective on this exciting evolution.

Illustrated with 200 stunning photographs and encompassing objects from furniture and ceramics to jewelry and metal, this definitive work from Jo Lauria and Steve Fenton showcases some of the greatest pieces of American crafts of the last two centuries. Potter Craft

In 1961 and 1962 artist Harvey K. Littleton, a professor of fine arts at the University of Wisconsin and son of the director of research at the Corning Glass Works, held a series of informal workshops to explore the art of hot glassmaking in a studio setting. Until then, almost without exception, glass objects had been blown or molded in an industrial context--that is, they were factory made. In the 1870s, the French designer Emile Gall� had made a radical change in the prevailing attitude toward glass as art by being the first modern artist to sign his work, just as painters and sculptors did. Nevertheless, art glass continued to be blown in factories, such as Orrefors in Sweden, Tiffany in the United States, and Lalique in France. In the 1960s, Littleton became convinced, after visiting a few European glassmakers working alone, that an artist could maintain a complete glassmaking facility within a studio; thanks to his determination and the creation of a low-melting glass formula by artist Dominick Labino, the studio glass movement was born. Progress was so swift that when, a decade later, The Metropolitan Museum of Art established a department devoted to the arts of the twentieth century, its curators sought out not only the innovative glass art of Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino, but also the work of such emerging artists as Dale Chihuly, Michael Glancy, and Jon Kuhn. Glass art had arrived. During the 1970s, in both Europe and the United States, the liberal political and social climate encouraged a new freedom in artistic expression. Artists who wanted to work in the medium of glass could take courses in colleges and universities and even graduate with a degree in glassmaking. Dale Chihuly, whose masterworks in glass and remarkable enthusiasm helped establish glass in the art world, founded the Pilchuck School near Seattle, devoted solely to the making of glass art and to teaching the various techniques available to artists. Experiments in abstract sculpture gave way to narrative works and assemblages that often conveyed a personal message. Erwin Eisch, working in Bavaria, engraved and painted his glass portrait heads of Picasso and Buddha with images expressing the horrors of war. Ginny Ruffner explored the women's liberation movement and the history of art through her lamp-worked sculptures. Artists no longer had to rely on the glass industry to create unique masterpieces of glass art. Thomas Patti's brilliant experiments with fused plate glass, Howard Ben Tr�'s heroic work in large-scale molded-glass sculpture, Mary Shaffer's sensuous slumped glass and metalwork, and William Morris's virtuoso forms with their evocation of the past attest to the virtually limitless opportunities now available to studio artists. (This title was originally published in 1995/96.)

Howard Ben Tre provides a comprehensive survey of the artist's oeuvre in stunning colorplates of his major sculptures, including many recent public projects, as well as his works on paper. 110 colour plates