Handle with Care: Recent Acquisitions in Glass June 10 October 7, 2012

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1 Racine Art Museum 441 Main Street Racine, Wisconsin p f Handle with Care: Recent Acquisitions in Glass June 10 October 7, 2012 The exhibition in the Ruffo and Schumann galleries features works made of glass that were recently gifted to RAM. Handle with Care not only celebrates the arrival of significant pieces to the museum s collection, it is also linked to a nationwide anniversary of studio glass in America. The beginning of the American studio glass movement is most often traced back to 1962 when Harvey K. Littleton established two glass workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art that brought artists, scientists, and experienced professional glass blowers together. These early proponents envisioned independent studios for glassblowing, a scenario that was not possible up to that point with the established technology. Such workshops provided forums for information sharing across disciplines and launched glass programs at universities while simultaneously sparking an interest in artists to experiment with the material. Littleton went on to establish a glass program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while other proponents worked to do the same at institutions across the country. These efforts encouraged experimentation and secured a place in contemporary craft for this compelling and dynamic medium. A series of lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitions are taking place across the United States as studio glass celebrates 50 years. Handle with Care is the smaller of two exhibitions that the museum will host in honor of this anniversary. Beginning October 28, RAM will display the work of over 20 artists in Cutting Edge: Contemporary Glass Jewelry. Glass has been used for centuries in any number of objects and proves to be a very appealing medium for artists. In fact, interest in using it to create works of art only continues to flourish. Not only does glass transmit color and light in a way no other material does, it is versatile and can be manipulated in many ways including blown or cast, flameworked or carved. Its surface can be etched, sandblasted, or painted. The artists represented in the collection (and this exhibition) use a variety of techniques and processes, many of which are described in the glossary at the end of these notes. Glass at RAM Believing that this has been a historically significant time for artistic advancement, Racine Art Museum has concentrated on the achievements of glass in the US and abroad to capture a clear picture of the movement s development. The museum owns examples from early leaders in the field, as well as some of today s emerging talents.

2 Biographies of Several Artists in RAM s Collection (from various sources) Fritz Dreisbach is one of the pioneers of the contemporary American glass movement. Described as a "teacher's teacher," he has taught and lectured in more than 130 institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia during the last 35 years. Dreisbach has been dubbed a walking encyclopedia of the contemporary glass movement. He is a founder and former president of the Glass Art Society, a Fellow of the American Crafts Council, and the 1993 recipient of the Rakow Commission from The Corning Museum of Glass. His work is included in many public and private collections. In 2002, he received the Glass Art Society s highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, for his unique and significant contributions to the world of glass. At age nineteen, Erwin Eisch was apprenticed in the glass engraving workshop of his father, Valentin Eisch. He later studied at the School for Glassmaking in Zweisel, Germany, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At age 23, Eisch, his parents and two brothers started a glass factory in Frauenau. Within four years, Eisch went back to school to study sculpture. Upon his return to Frauenau he set up a studio in the factory's basement where he could create sculptures in glass. In 1962, Harvey K. Littleton, excited to hear of a fellow artist who was using glass as a fine art medium, visited Eisch. The two became fast friends. Eisch began exhibiting his glass work in His work is now found internationally in both public and private collections. Michael Glancy is widely recognized as a prominent innovator in the field of studio glass. After studying with Dale Chihuly, he found his own artistic personality by combining different techniques from sandblasting and acid etching cold glass to applying electroformed copper, silver, or gold to surfaces. Fascinated by microscopic landscapes, Glancy translates cellular structures and geological stratifications into impressive sculptural objects. The lattice patterns etched into the glass suggest latitude and longitude, while the organic and undulating vessels allude to topography. Glancy s work is represented in numerous international museums and collections. Since 1982, he has taught and worked at the Rhode Island School of Design. Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have worked collaboratively for over 27 years after meeting and teaching at the Pilchuck Glass School in They have created a diverse body of work that includes both blown glass vessels with applied imagery, and sculpture fabricated with wood, glass, and other media. The artists, respected for their innovative work, have recently concluded the series for which they are best known, large-scale blown glass fruit and vegetable forms. They continue to work on life size figurative wood and glass sculptures, as well as outdoor bronze installations. Their newest work includes clear blown vessels and cast panels with illustrations of the first facts of bird identification through applied glass dust drawings.

3 Harvey K. Littleton was born in Corning, New York, in Littleton s involvement with glass began in the environment of the Corning Glass Works where his father was director of research. His studies in physics, industrial design, and ceramics culminated in a distinguished career as an artist and educator. In the early 1960s, Littleton pioneered the Studio Glass Movement. His experiments in glassblowing, while teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, became the impetus for many programs in studio glassblowing across the country and around the world. Much of his sculpture uses tubes, rods, and columns of glass, with plate glass and even lens discs. Richard Marquis was educated at the University of California-Berkeley in the mid 1960s when the Studio Glass Movement was just getting started. A Fulbright scholarship took him to Italy where he developed his knowledge of Venetian glass-forming techniques. Marquis has created a body of work that is quirky, funky, satirical, and irreverent. He mixes skillfully blown pieces with an eclectic mix of art and junk that he collects. Joel Philip Myers was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in He began his work in glass with individual, smooth polished pieces that had imbedded collages of variegated color. In the late 1990s, Myers moved on to creating installations of vertical mold-blown glass vessels that are monochromatic in color and at times textured or pierced. Their cylindrical shapes echo the human form, and their groupings evoke human relationships. Ann Wolff studied first at the School for Fashion Design in Hamburg, Germany, and then at the Academy of Design in Ulm, where she majored in visual communication. She entered the glass industry when she married the Swedish glass artist Goran Wärff. For many years, Wolff worked as a designer of decorative and household glass. At various stages of her career, she has created sandblasted and etched multi-layered vessels, large plates, and cast figures. Wolff gave up glass at one point to investigate her ideas through drawing, painting, and printmaking. She has won many awards for her work and has a global presence in collections across the world. Glass Terminology Acid Etching the process of decorating glass, developed in the 19th century, in which the surface is etched with hydrofluoric acid. The glass is coated with an acid resistant substance, such as wax, through which the design is scratched. Then, acid is applied to etch the exposed areas of glass. Acid Polishing the process of making a glossy, polished surface by dipping the object into a mixture of hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids.

4 Annealing the process of slowly cooling a completed glass object in an auxiliary part of the glass furnace, or in a separate furnace. This is an integral part of glassmaking because if a hot glass object is allowed to cool too quickly, it will be highly strained by the time it reaches room temperature; indeed, it may break as it cools. Highly strained glass breaks easily if subjected to mechanical or thermal shock. Batch a mixture of raw materials used to make glass. Blowing the technique of forming an object by inflating a gob of molten glass gathered on the end of a blowpipe and shaping it with tools or in a mold. Blowpipe an iron or steel tube, usually about five feet long, for blowing glass. Blowpipes have a mouthpiece at one end and are usually fitted at the other end with a metal ring that helps to retain a gather. Cane a solid glass rod. Carving the removal of glass from the surface of an object by means of hand-held tools. Casing the application of a layer of glass over a layer of contrasting color. Casting the generic name for a variety of techniques used to form glass in a mold. Crackled a surface decoration produced by chilling the glass in water and reheating to partially smooth the cracks and relieve the strains. Crystal a term for highly refractive, colorless lead glass. Cutting the process of making facets, grooves, and depressions by using rotation discs of various materials, sizes, and shapes along with a stream of water containing an abrasive. Enameling a decorative technique wherein colored powdered glass is mixed with oil, then painted onto the surface and reheated to fuse the design. Engraving the process of decorating glass by cutting the design into the surface of the glass by a diamond, a metal needle, or a rotating wheel. Etching can be done in several forms, but mainly it involves hydrofluoric acid action under controlled conditions on certain unprotected areas of the glass. Pattern stencils are used, and acid resist paint is applied to the areas that are not to be etched. Favrile a type of glass developed in the early 1890s by Louis Comfort Tiffany with an iridescent surface that simulates excavated ancient glass.

5 Flameworking the working of glass rods and tubes by heating them in a flame; also called lampworking. Fuming the coating of the surface of glass with a thin spray of metallic chloride to create a wrinkled and iridescent surface. Furnace the source of heat for fusing the raw ingredients of glass, maintaining objects in a molten state, and reheating partly formed objects. (See also glory hole.) Fusing the process of melting the batch, heating pieces of glass in a furnace until they bond, and heating enameled glasses until the enamel bonds with the surface of the object. Gaffer the master blower and head of a team of glass artisans. Gather 1. To get glass from the furnace onto the pipe or punty. 2. The molten glass on the pipe or punty before it is blown. Gilding the process of decorating glass by the use of gold leaf, gold paint, or gold dust. The gilding may be applied with size (a gelationous substance used as a glaze or filler), or amalgamated with mercury. It is then usually fixed to the glass by heat. Gold leaf may also be picked up on a gather of hot glass. Glass an artificial substance made by fusing some form of silica (sand), an alkali (potash or soda), and sometimes another base (lime or lead oxide). It is plastic when molten and rigid when cold. Glory Hole a reheating oven within the furnace. Kiln an oven used to process a substance by burning, drying, or heating. In contemporary glass working, kilns are used to fuse enamel and for kiln forming processes such as slumping. Kiln Forming the process of fusing or shaping glass (usually in or over a mold) by heating it in a kiln. See slumping. Lampworking the process of manipulating glass that has been slowly heated over a torch or flame until soft; also known as flameworking. Marver a slab of marble or steel used for rolling and chilling hot glass. Melt the fluid glass produced by melting a batch of raw materials.

6 Mold or Mould the form, normally made of wood, metal, graphite or plaster, used for shaping and/or decorating molten glass. Some molds impart a pattern to the parison, which is then withdrawn, blown, and tooled to the desired shape and size. Other molds are used to give the object its final form, with or without decoration. Parison (from the French paraison) the gather, on the end of a blowpipe, when it becomes partly inflated. Pâte de Verre a French term meaning glass paste. Powdered colored glass is mixed with a binder and a fluxing medium, then molded and fired. The process was known in ancient Egypt and revived in France in the 19th century. Pick Up Decoration the technique whereby a hot parison is rolled in chips of glass, which are picked up, marvered, and inflated. Polishing smoothing the surface of an object, when it is cold, by holding it against a rotating wheel fed with a fine abrasive. Glass can also be polished with hand-held tools. Punty (Pontil) a solid steel rod used for gathering glass. Also used for attachment to the bottom of a blown piece so that the blowpipe may be struck off and the opening of the piece reheated and finished. Sandblasting the process of removing glass or imparting a matte finish by directing a pressurized stream of sand at the surface. Slumping the process of creating a sagging form by using the force of gravity on heat-softened glass. The Studio Glass Movement in the United States took place in the 1960s when the development of a small furnace by Harvey K. Littleton, and easy-to-melt glass by Dominick Labino allowed artists to begin to produce one-of-a-kind objects in their studios. Wheel Engraving the process of decorating the surface of glass by the grinding action of a wheel, using disks of various sizes and materials (usually copper, but sometimes stone). An abrasive in a grease or slurry is applied to a wheel, as the engraver holds the object against the underside of the rotating wheel.