Sculpture, Glass, and American Museums - Tapa dura

"Glass is no longer just a material of function but a material of metaphor. Its unique ability to hold light in mass makes it a powerful medium for sculpture, and its mercurial aspect-alternately transparent, translucent, reflective, and opaque-encourages the exploration of myriad forms. This book is a dynamic introduction to a remarkable material that represents a significant new trend in contemporary art."-Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass

In recent decades, glass sculpture has entered American museum collection in unprecedented numbers. A new phenomenon, this reflects new attitudes: an understanding that art-making occurs in glass as suitable for inclusion in museum collections. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Martha Drexler Lynn takes the reader on a tour of glass sculpture in American museums. She covers 26 permanent collections across the U.S., including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her survey of these museums reveals their lively interest in glass as an artistic medium, despite an earlier modernist bias. Sculpture, Glass, and American Museums will appeal to collectors, museums, critics, and art historians. Covering the work of such artists as Christopher Wilmarth, Howard Ben Tre, Lynda Benglis, and Stanislav Libensky, Lynn paints a portrait of a medium that is rapidly becoming an indispensable component of contemporary museum collections. This publication was commissioned by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.