It is not uncommon for an artist to be touted as “the greatest” or “most significant,” but in the case of Lino Tagliapietra, the pronouncements happen to be true. Tagliapietra, now age 73, left school at age eleven to work full time in the glassmaking industry. Considering the time period and the post-World War II economic situation, such a background is not unusual for a child living in the glass center of Murano, an island in the Venetian lagoon. What is indeed exceptional is that the child who developed into the world’s greatest living glassblower (and arguably one of the greatest in the history of glassmaking) also proved to be a superb artist and educator. In the process, Tagliapietra changed the course of contemporary glass.

By 1978, American Studio Glassmaking had reached a crossroads. The excitement and experimentation of the late 1960s and first half of the 1970s were no longer sufficient to drive the field forward. Glassmakers were hungry for greater technical knowledge and one by one made their way to Europe. American artists gained first-hand experience and knowledge at the Glassmaking School in Orrefors, Sweden, and the Venini Glassworks in Venice. Even more artists received second-hand knowledge brought back to the U.S. by artists James Carpenter, Dale Chihuly, Dan Dailey, and Benjamin Moore.

In 1978, Moore spearheaded a drive to bring the first real Muranese glassmaking maestro (master), Checco Ongaro, to the young Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Ongaro spent two weeks demonstrating classic Italian glassworking techniques, but he was uncomfortable (as were many of his colleagues back in Italy) sharing even some of the knowledge that had been proprietary to Murano for centuries. Although invited to return to teach the next year, Ongaro refused. In his place came his brother-in-law, Lino Tagliapietra, an equally accomplished craftsman who knew that if glassmaking at its highest level was to survive, it must expand beyond the declining industry in Murano.

At age 45, Tagliapietra (who did not speak a word of English) stepped onto an airplane for the first time and made the trip to Seattle. That first stay at Pilchuck, during the summer of 1979, would have repercussions for years to come that extended far beyond the Pacific Northwest. Tagliapietra unhesitatingly shared what he knew with artists in the United States, and then all over the world. Over 28 years of teaching and through his personal example—the passionate love of the craft, disciplined work ethic, and demand for perfection—the craft of glassmaking was dramatically elevated worldwide.

Defying bitter criticism from the community back home, Tagliapietra never stopped sharing his knowledge. But the giving was not a one-way street: Tagliapietra benefited equally from the young Americans and other foreigners that he taught and with whom he collaborated. After years of factory production work, Tagliapietra came face-to-face with new ways of regarding the material and with individuals who considered it a medium for art. They were blowing glass not because they were born on an island with few other ways to earn a living, but for the sheer joy and challenge of it. In the 1980s, Tagliapietra’s already fertile design sense grew to equal his technical skill.

Tagliapietra’s knowledge of glassmaking methodology is so deep that when combined with his inherent and self-taught sense of color and design, the results are unparalleled. Several elements are critical to the success of the designs: the overall form of the object—from exquisite variations on historical vessels to installations of stylized boats and birds; the details and relationship of the interior and exterior of the glass—from embedded layers of intricate filigree to deep carving that sculpts the surface; the optical effects and interaction of the manipulated glass components; and the rich and varied color combinations that are all the more astonishing because they are undetectable while the red-hot molten glass is being formed. Somehow Tagliapietra, as a designer, combines the two- and three-dimensional patterning, the multiple hues, and the overall shape into one harmonious, exuberant whole within his mind’s eye. As an unparalleled craftsman, he then proceeds to execute a vision which would be folly for anyone else to even attempt.

There has never been a retrospective look at Lino Tagliapietra’s art and career in its entirety. The Museum of Glass is undertaking this challenge in an exhibition that will represent not only pivotal and renowned series of artistic work covering a period of approximately thirty years, but also designs made for industry and private objects that have never been exhibited.

A catalogue co-published with the University of Washington Press will include essays by exhibition curator Susanne K. Frantz, former curator of 20th-century glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, and internationally acclaimed scholar and glass historian Dr. Helmut Ricke, of the Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf. A detailed chronology of Tagliapietra’s life will also be included as well as an explanatory technical section aimed at a general audience authored by renowned Seattle glassmaker and early Tagliapietra student, Dante Marioni.

In addition to selected American venues following Tacoma, a world tour is planned for the exhibition. Already significant interest has been expressed by leading institutions in Europe, Japan, Australia, and even China, where Tagliapietra’s work has never been shown. The exhibition and catalogue will document the unparalleled contributions of Lino Tagliapietra and the Seattle area to the history of the visual arts and glass, as both art and superlative craft.