CONTRASTS: A GLASS PRIMER

November 11, 2006 – October 11, 2009

Organized by Museum of Glass

Contrasts: A Glass Primer is designed as a compelling introduction to the medium of glass for visitors who may be entering a museum for the first time. The exhibition is comprised of international, historically important, and visually stunning works of glass art that are grouped to illustrate opposing ideas, techniques, and styles.

Over fifty objects are placed in about twenty groupings. Some of the groupings concentrate on the appearance and forming of glass objects including Natural/Fabricated, Hot/Warm/Cold, Transparent/Translucent/Opaque and Factory/Studio. Other groupings use glass objects to illustrate general aesthetic, historic, or iconographic categories like Form/Surface, Vessel/Sculpture, Useful/Fanciful and Art/Craft.

Included are important works in the history of glass. Examples include a first century blown Roman cinerary urn that illustrates hot-formed glass; a ca. 1900 Tiffany church window epitomizes sacred art; a mid-twentieth century Harvey Littleton vase from the earliest days of the American Studio Glass movement contrasts with factory-made glass of the same period.

Among the internationally renown artists in the exhibition are Rene Lalique, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stanislav Libenský, Jaroslava Brychtová, Harvey Littleton, and Dale Chihuly. The contemporary artists in the exhibition include an outstanding selection from the Pacific Northwest’s glass community: Richard Marquis, Ginny Ruffner, Dante Marioni, Sonja Blomdahl, Flora Mace, Joey Kirkpatrick, Susan Plum, and Robbie Miller.

Contrasts: A Glass Primer is guest curated by Vicki Halper and is accompanied by a publication.

Exhibition Sponsors
Ben B. Cheney Foundation
Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation
The Seattle Times
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Image credits:
1. SACRED: Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, born 1848-1933), Stained glass panel, Young Joseph, United States, Corona, Long Island, New York, Tiffany Studios, about 1900. Multi-colored, cut and leaded glass, 69 1/2 x 39 inches. Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass.
2. SECULAR: Frank Lloyd Wright (American, born 1867-1959), Sample Window for the Susan Lawrence Dana House, Springfield, Illinois, c. 1904. Leaded glass, 46 ½ x 31 ½ inches. Courtesy of Greenville College.
3. HEAVY: Robbie Miller (Canadian-American, born 1955), Block, 2000. Kiln-cast lead crystal. Courtesy of the artist and William Traver Gallery, Seattle, photo by Russell Johnson.
4. LIGHT: Susan Plum (American, born 1944), Metamorphosis Series: Tejidos XIII, 1997. Flameworked glass. Collection of Anne Gould Hauberg, photo courtesy of Richard Nichol.
5. FLUID: Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941), Crystaline Clear Venetian with Clear Coil, 1991. Blown glass, 15 x 22 x 17 inches. Collection of Tacoma Art Museum, gift by exchange from Rod and Laverne Hagenbuch, Dr. and Mrs. Shaw, and the artist, photo by Chuck Taylor, courtesy of Chihuly Studio.
6. RIGID: Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libenský, (Czech, born 1924 and 1921-2002), Diagonal, 1989. Cast glass, 30 x 30 x 5 ½ inches. Courtesy of Heller Gallery, New York City, photo by Steven Barall.
7. BEAUTIFUL: Frederick Carder (designer, British, 1863–1963), Head of a Woman, Steuben Glass, about 1940. Cast pâte de verre glass. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass.
8. BRUTAL: Hank Murta Adams (American, born 1956), Platterhead, 1996. Cast glass and patinated copper. Collection of Tacoma Art Museum, gift of Rebecca and Alexander C. Stewart, photo by Richard Nicol.