Glass Sculptures - The Play Of Color And Light

Glass Sculptures - The Play Of Color And Light

By:


Glass has always fascinated artists as a unique medium to express their visions. Its ability to reflect light, to capture colors and to appear at the same time solid and weightless, makes glass unique material in which to present artistic view of the world in the three-dimensional form.

While the glass was used to create decorative and useful objects for more than six thousand years, glass sculptures, the way we know them today, are fairly new invention.

Technology brought huge changes in the production of utilitarian glass like window or mirror glass, and useful household objects like glassware. But, when it comes to glass art, everything that artists produce today is still done by hand, the way it has been done for thousands of years. Many techniques that artists use today have been invented in Murano, in Italy, some almost five hundred years ago. But, the techniques were used in a traditional way, to make useful objects of great artistic value, not to create art for the art's sake. It was not until the 20th century that the first art glass was produced.

One of the best places to see how glass-making changed through times is the Murano Glass Museum, which hosts collections of Murano and Venetian glass dating from the 15th century. It was not until 1914 that Vittorio Zecchin, with his mall slab in mosaic glass known as the Lastrina Barbaro, produced the first glass art piece that had no practical use. It can be said that Zecchin brought a breath of fresh air to Murano's strongly traditional glass making and opened the door for other artists and sculptors to experiment in glass.

Zecchin was linked with the Ca Pesaro artistic movement. He created unique pieces in mosaic glass which were made at the Barovier Brothers factory. Zecchin was strongly influenced by Klimt and Toorop. This influence is manifested by vivid colors and gold inlays and was so strong that there are many pieces of contemporary glass art coming today from Murano that are still showing this artistic line.

Sculptor Napoleone Martinuzzi experimented in the filigree glass and in 1929 produced his famous glass sculptures The Ducklings. He also used a new type of opaque glass containing bubbles, called pulegoso. This technique allowed him to create different shapes such a fruit and mushrooms, decorated with thick ribbons or having many spouts.

Walter Furlan used the technique called a massello, to produce pure crystal sculptures infused with brilliant colors. After meeting Picasso in 1963, his glass sculptures show strong Picasso's influence.

After the 2nd World War Murano glass artists focused on studying color effects in glass. Alfredo Barbini experimented with plasticity of molten glass, and as a result created a series of beautiful glass sculptures. Archimede Seguso kept his attention to traditional glass-making techniques, especially complex pieces in filigree glass.

After Paolo Venini opened his glass workshop to the artists from all over the world, glass sculptures and glass art in general started flourishing in many countries. New modern technologies did not add much to the ancient Murano glass techniques, but the artistic expressions became much wider, showing what varied results the combination of old techniques and modern artistic sensibilities can produce. Some of the most spectacular glass sculptures are produced by Dale Shihulu, Lino Tagliapietra, William Morris, and others.

About the Author:
Murano Glass Sculptures | Murano Glass and Murano Glass Jewelry imported from Venice, Italy.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent Shopping-and-Product-Reviews Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.