Archive for the 'NEWS' Category
‘Contemporary Glass Sculpture.’
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At North Dallas home,
collectors’ passion for glass sculpture is clear
11:35 AM CST on Saturday, January 2, 2010
By HARRIET P. GROSS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News A large red chile pepper. A bust of an Egyptian pharaoh. A little girl’s party dress. What can these possibly have in common?
All are sculptures in glass, just three among an amazing variety in the ever-growing collection of Dallasites Dennis and Barbara DuBois.
Without exaggeration, the DuBois collection can be termed “museum quality.” Some 30 of their more than 320 pieces were viewed from March through July by 60,000 visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Yale University Press published the catalog, Pioneers of Contemporary Glass.
Dennis and Barbara DuBois have more than 300 contemporary glass sculptures in their collection. They display about 275 in their home.
The word “pioneers” in the title refers to the modern artists represented in the exhibition. But it’s also an apt description of Dennis and Barbara themselves: pioneering collectors of a young medium in the old art world.
A few American artists, Dale Chihuly and Dan Dailey among them, studied and worked at the famed Venini factory in Murano, Italy, during the late 1950s, then brought their skills home to begin a new movement in the United States.
“Do not call this work ‘art glass,’ ” Dennis insists. “That makes it sound like a craft. This is fine art. Call it ‘contemporary glass sculpture.’ ” Of course, pieces by Chihuly, Dailey and other early modern glass masters are included among the many the DuBoises have acquired since they began collecting in 1986.
It all started the year before when Dennis, then a practicing attorney on business in Toronto, brought back two glass perfume bottles as a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife. Barbara was so taken with them that she went along on his next trip, to select another. But bottles were forgotten when, in the Sandra Ainsley Gallery, both were galvanized by Flying Disks, the Kit Karbler-Michael David glass sculpture that became the seed of their collection.
“At that time, we had no idea what we were doing,” Dennis says. “We didn’t know blown glass from cast glass or any of its other variations. The only thing we knew about glass was that it would break if we dropped it!”
The couple credits Ainsley and other gallery owners for educating them. Since Dennis’ retirement six years ago, they travel to meet artists; they have visited 85 of the 165 represented in their collection to watch them at work.
They’ve also become involved with two local organizations: Dallas-based Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, and SiNaCa Studios in Fort Worth.
Gallery personnel often help Dennis and Barbara make selections they know are good fits for their collection – groundbreaking pieces by up-and-coming artists, for example. But most of the DuBois acquisitions are chosen like that very first piece: “We look at something, and we both have that same feeling of electricity,” Barbara says. “It’s an instant attraction.”
Very occasionally, they’ll buy a piece based on a photo sent by someone who knows them and their collection. But no recommendation can match seeing a glass sculpture up close and personal.
“There are so many types of glass,” Dennis says. “Some don’t look like glass. Glass reflects, refracts, absorbs light. It changes from morning to night, if it’s lit or unlit.”
The two-story, modern, large-windowed North Dallas house that the DuBois family moved into in 1981, a full five years before the collecting began, was a serendipitous choice: Every room, including its baths, is now filled with glass, and three large, weather-resistant pieces grace the outdoors.
What about breakage? They’re resigned. “It can happen,” Dennis says. In most cases, they are able to return a piece to its artist for repairs. But some types of glass are beyond restoration when chipped or shattered. “We have seven or eight of those in the garage that I’m going to do something with someday,” he says.
The DuBoises have been married for 40 years; their children, 9 and 12 when the collecting began, grew up appreciating beauty and fragility. Michael, now a Dallas businessman, frequently checks out his parents’ new acquisitions and his own old favorites. Darcy, a rabbi in New York, has no qualms when she brings her two children, ages 5 and 2, to visit.
“The grandkids don’t touch,” Barbara says. “The 2-year-old just looks around and says, ‘Glass everywhere.’ ”
Harriet P. Gross is a Dallas freelance writer.
The DuBoises’ favorite glass artists?
All! But the pieces mentioned at the start of their story are Red Pepper by Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, 1990; Ramses II by Seth Randall, 1996; and Dress VII by Karen LaMonte, 2002.
Taking care of glass sculpture
Dust about twice a week with sable brushes; they attract and hold dust rather than simply moving it around. Spray with a glass cleaner only when it’s necessary to remove fingerprints, but NEVER use a product that contains ammonia.
To learn more
•The mission of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is “to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.” Visit www.contempglass.org for information.
•Glass may be spun, blown, cast, mold-melted, pieced into mosaics, and many other forms. For information on forms and to see some DuBois pieces that illustrate them, see the Pioneers of Contemporary Glass exhibition catalogue at www.yalebooks.com.
•See models sashay while holding contemporary sculptures on April 17 at “Where Glass Rules the Runway,” the third annual fundraiser for SiNaCa Studios in Fort Worth. (Its name comes from the scientific terms for glass’ three essential elements: silicon, sodium and calcium.) Details are available at www.sinacastudios.org.
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Corning Museum Announces 2010 Artists-in-Residence
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The Corning Museum of Glass Supports Seven Artists-in-Residence in 2010
CORNING, NY, February 4, 2010– Seven artists from the glassmaking world and beyond will research and experiment with new techniques and subjects as 2010 artists-in-residence at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass. This year’s international roster includes a tattoo artist, a Danish glass designer and a ceramic artist inspired by Islamic textiles.
The resident artists will be supported with technical assistance, housing, a food stipend, and studio space for one month. They also will have full access to The Studio’s state-of-the-art facilities, the Museum’s renowned Rakow Research Library, Museum staff, and the 45,000-object collection, which spans 35 centuries of glassmaking and represents each civilization in which glass has been made.
“TheArtist-in-Residence program is an important facet of The Studio’s programming,” says Amy Schwartz, director, development, education programs, and The Studio. “As advocates for artists working in glass, we focus this program on helping emerging artists begin their careers and giving established artists the opportunity to explore new directions. We provide artists with the materials, space and time they need to create so that they can focus solely on their art.”
The artists (except the September residents) will provide public Lunchtime Lectures during their residencies, describing their artistic inspirations and their work at The Studio. Lectures will take place in The Studio Lecture Room at 12:00 p.m. on the specified dates. Registration is not required, and admission is free. Please contact (607) 974-6467 or thestudio@cmog.org for more details.
Eliza Au – April 2010
Eliza Au comes to glass from the world of ceramics, translating her specialization in ceramic slip casting into glass casting work. Her attraction to glass is in its transparency and translucency. Much of her work is influenced by Gothic wrought-iron fences or Islamic tile and textile patterns. During her residency, Au will work on a glass carpet entitled Invisible Visions, referring both to the transparency of glass and the religious idea of believing without seeing. Au, who is based in British Columbia, holds an MFA in Ceramic Art from Alfred University and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her work has been featured in galleries across British Columbia and the northwest, and is also in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon.
Marie Retpen – April 2010
Marie Retpen is a Danish glass designer and maker who focuses on aesthetic and experimentation, turning everyday forms into surreal sculptures which look as though they are partially melted. The works are often displayed on furniture in a theatrical setting, or as part of a narrative installation. During her April residency, Retpen will develop sculptural work in glass inspired by the surrealistic novels, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Retpen holds a diploma in production glassblowing from the Kosta Glass School in Sweden and a MA from the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been shown at solo and group exhibitions all over the world. Retpen and Au will provide a free, public lecture at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 29, in The Studio Lecture Room.
Gayla Lee – May 2010
Gayla Lee creates and sells glass jewelry and kiln-formed glassware, incorporating murrine (slices of glass cane) to create complex patterns. Lee loves the ability of glass to be “formed into precise geometric patterns and organic representations of patterns found in nature.” She will use the vast resources of the Museum and The Studio during her May residency to further explore ideas beyond her current lines of production. Lee would like to make large geometric wall coverings that mimic patterns found in woven textiles, as well as those found in natural wood grains. Lee will provide a free, public lecture at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 27, in The Studio Lecture Room.
Leo Tecosky and Slate Grove – September 2010
Leo Tecosky and Slate Grove will work together in this year’s Instructor Collaborative Residency. They will explore their work from the dichotomy of their own very different life experiences. Tecosky, who has taught at The Studio, is influenced by hip hop and graffiti art culture in Miami, where he grew up. Grove is a rock-and-roll tattoo artist from Iowa. During their September residency, they will create art based around the two-dimensional concepts of their respective taboos, as well as three-dimensional blown-glass sculptures representing their passions, ultimately creating a body of work that blends life differences and represents a commonality of soul. (No lecture)
Erica Rosenfeld – October 2010
Erica Rosenfeld creates glass jewelry, functional glass, and sculpture in glass. She will use her October residency to focus on a labor-intensive body of work involving multiple processes. The resulting installations will include narrative glass tapestries and found objects and “tell stories about people and the rituals they create to uphold traditions and to form community and family.” Rosenfeld’s work has been shown at the Museum of Arts and Design, SOFA New York, and other galleries throughout the United States. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Rosenfeld will provide a free, public lecture at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 28, in The Studio Lecture Room.
K Hyewook Huh – November 2010
K Hyewook Huh is a glass artist who works and teaches in Seoul, Korea. Her work is an interpretation of her environment, as well as of the “emotional ups and downs that humans feel within their environment.” She uses a variety of glassmaking techniques, from blowing to kiln-casting. In her kiln-cast work, she uses visual effects to explore positives and negatives reflected shapes. During her November residency, Huh will experiment with hot casting, using the resources of the Museum and The Studio as inspiration. Huh holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a BFA from Kookmin University in Seoul, where she now teaches part-time. Her work has been exhibited at SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York, as well as other exhibitions throughout the United States and Asia. Huh will provide a free, public lecture at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 23, in The Studio Lecture Room.
The Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass (www.cmog.org) is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass. Spanning the globe and encompassing more than 3,500 years of human ingenuity, the collection includes masterpieces from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; the great civilizations of Islam, Asia, Europe, and the Americas; and the range of artistic movements beginning in the late 19th century and extending to the present day. Interactive exhibits tell the story of life-changing historic advancements and contemporary innovations in glass technology.
Live glassblowing demonstrations (offered at the Museum, on the road in the U.S. and abroad, and at sea on Celebrity Cruises) bring the material to life for audiences of all ages. Daily Make Your Own Glass experiences at the Museum enable visitors to create their own work in a state-of-the-art hot glassmaking studio.
The Museum’s campus includes a year-round glassmaking school, The Studio, and the Rakow Research Library, the world’s foremost archive and reference collection on the history of glassmaking. A center for scholarship, the Museum also publishes glass-focused periodicals, books, and exhibition catalogues.
Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State, the Museum is open daily, year-round. Kids and teens 19 and under receive free admission. The Corning Museum of Glass is conveniently located directly off I-86/Rte. 17, mid-way between Niagara Falls and New York City.
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Contact: Yvette Sterbenk, (607) 974-8124, sterbenkym@cmog.org or Dara Riegel, (607) 974-7599, riegeldc@cmog.org