Exhibition
'Glass Inspired by Great Artists'- An OPEN show
'Glass Inspired by Great Artists'- AN OPEN SHOW
35 glass artists were selected, CGS members and also non-members.
We asked UK glass artists and International artists to answer the subject of whether there is/was a famous artist who is an inspiration to them and who inspired their work?
Work which displayed a figurative, literal or thematic inspiration of a particular artist’s work on their own.
We even had artists from Japan, Costa Rica, The UK, China, Denmark, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Ireland taking part and sharing their work with us.
Soft crocodiles, delicately painted layers, exquisite engraving, sharp, angular or delicate casting, intricate stained glass, shapely blown forms- a true wealth of techniques and creative ideas explodes here.
Each artist has been inspired by a famous artist and their ideas have been replicated, diluted, pulled apart and recreated within their own work.
As with all CGS online gallery shows, this was a juried show. Works are selected on the merit of both the work, and also photography.
If you would like to become a member and take part in our online gallery shows, please email admin@cgs.org.uk
This online exhibition was launched on 18th March 2018.
I had screen printed these glass sheets some years ago as sample colours for another piece of work and they were stored in my studio. When I visited an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg's work in the Barbican recently I saw an exhibit which suddenly gave me the idea of how I could use these glass sheets, albeit in a slightly different way as his work used other materials.
This Work is inspired by the famous painting called 'Ophelia', painted by the British artist Sir John Everett Millais.
Ophelia is a character in William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet' and the painting is of the moment that she abandons
herself to drown in a river.
I wanted to created an expression of his painting.
I think that her hidden feelings, emotions, and memories had started to make her feel like she was apart from her body.
For me it is almost like a boat floating down the river, taking her memories on another journey elsewhere.
From an early age I loved Dali's surrealist worlds. I wanted to see if I could capture something of his world in extra depth. Using 6 layers of enamel painted 2mm white and clear bullseye glass with a raised viewpoint to develop a merger in to a more dimensional desert landscape, where mirage changes distant sands to what could be water.
My early inspirations came from my love of Egyptology, but then I saw Antony Gormley’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and was completely hooked! His silhouetted, simple figures still influence me and my own shadow figures continue to let me tell my story yet allowing the viewer room to add their own interpretation.
In this piece, the bound figure in the centre has been pulled and stretched by the melting glass. The figure is still burning red inside, a ‘modern saint’: as new wars, disease and famine also bind, imprison and pull populations apart, creating new heroes.
I am inspired by the art of Eva Hesse, especially her sculptural vessels made from fibre glass. Her work was subtle, expressive with emotional content. My recent work is in response to the fragile mind and the nature of mental illness.
‘Patriarchy’ is the cast of a ball of wall of a visceral red colour. The tightness of the outer layer of the wool contrasts with the looseness of its inner layer where loops are constrained and forced to form a uniform shape; it is a metaphor for the way society strictures repress feminine power. The symbol of the yarn which generally has warm and homely connotations is subverted to represent the place given to women in patriarchy. This work makes a comment on the sacrifice that this has meant for many women. It is bodily, silent and painful; it speaks of isolation and alienation. This artwork is inspired by Kiki Smith's overall oeuvre particularly her feminist art and it makes reference to her work titled 'Red Spill'.
The image is inspired by the pictures of Yorkshire Artist Christina Harris who creates lovely pictures of sheep in the snow. I was sure I should be able to create something similar in glass.
This piece forms part of an exploration of stringed and pierced pieces and was inspired by the stringed sculpture of Barbara Hepworth.
As my work has developed over the years I have made a point of looking and understanding other artists work , one of these artists has been the cubist Fernand Leger 1881-1955.
Leger’s use of the figure where he explores the mechanics and machinery of the human body by his use of simplified tubular forms struck a note with me when I was working on my series the Jugglers. His use of paint, colour and form influenced the Trompe-L’oeil effect I was trying to get with the limbs and body position of my figures.
I ran a series of workshops with students studying GCSE art. They drew inspiration from David Hockney paintings to create their own designs in wire and etched glass.
I then amalgamated these designs in glass blocks which I used in a wall installation at Delamore Arts 2017, and in an exhibition at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen.
Working with the students led me to look for inspiration in new places; I had been aware of Hockney's work but hadn't thought that it was relevant to my practise.
I really enjoyed introducing the students to new techniques and to developing designs in this way.
Inspired by the iconic painting 'Flag' by Jasper Johns. This is my abstract interpretation of a very familiar image.
Inspired by Rene Mackintosh's watercolours landscapes from the south of France.
These are my free interpretation of a place that is very familiar to me.
I tried to capture the light and the geometry/ topography of this peculiar area.
This panel takes the inspiration from a view of the harbour of Port Vendres: "La rue du Soleil"
Bullseye glass, hand pulled murrini, burnished with 22ct Gold Leaf
Inspired by the sculptural practice and the narrative that Alasin Mackie’s evokes in his work,
from the idea of nature and its environment; “It is as labour-intensive as it is formally effortless, as grounded in ideas
of nature as it is in the intrinsically human struggle to define a role within the environment”
Piet Mondrian believed that art reflected the underlying spirituality of nature. The translucent quality of glass, in the historical context of stained glass windows in spiritual spaces, appealed to me in the making of this window in my studio....my space for reflection, inspiration, and making. As a graphic designer, I was influenced by Mondrian’s radically simplified elements in his use of pure abstraction.
‘Colours of the wind’ has always been a piece of music that really hit my senses: the combination of the music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the stunning and mysterious vistas created by the artists of Pocahontas have really stuck with me since I first saw them as a 10 year old.
It is unsurprising that so many creatives draw on the natural world for inspiration. It is so overwhelmingly generous in it’s provision. I adore being out in the open and find wonder in natural ‘moments’: the dappling of light through the translucent tree leaves and blossom, butterflies dancing together, swirls of wind drawing up leaves and petals, the flight paths of bees, the stunning displays of flocks of starlings and the gorgeous and varied hues of colour that paint the sky at dusk. Sadly they are all too often fleeting and we don't always remember them all. Here in these pieces, I hope to have captured some of these ‘moments’ where the sky has been painted “with all the colours of the wind”
Small tablet inspired by the graphic artist M C Escher’s Lithograph of Reptiles. Crocodiles circling in blue water, some partly submerged. Form made using lost wax then open cast with pate de verre technique to fill the body of the crocodiles.
Nature is the greatest artist who inspires my artwork making at times. My work Coral Reef Sea Series sourced from the inspiration of the holy artwork by Nature, which is Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The work expressed my heart yearn for the nature, beauty and purity. Coral Reef Sea 9# was created by diversiform fusing technique which is the exclusive skill developed by myself. Fusion appears on the surface of the glass, and sometimes it responses internally in its absorbed reflections.
I was inspired for this work by Vasili Kandinsky, who is considered the father of abstract art.
In his work is present beauty, chromatic richness, abstraction, spirituality and a deep fascination with nature and its forms. We can highlight 3 categories: impressions, inspired by nature; improvisation, expression of inner emotions; and the compositions, which combined the intuitive with the most demanding compositional rigor.
He experimented with the circular and concentric strokes, continued in his particular search for invented forms, which he captured through complex combined colors and inspired by geometric signs and Slavic decorative motifs.
This piece is part of the Connections Collection which revolves around the concepts of interactions
between human beings as well as with their environment. Piet Mondrian geometric and line designs
as well as striking use of colours have been a key inspiration in developing this collection.
Central panel shows a woman being washed. The female figure was based on Egon Schiele painting of a woman- I removed her stockings and sagged her breasts and stomach...thinking of her as an old woman who needed looking after. Her body is also stained with silver stain, increasing the contrast between her figure and the prosaic men washing her with cloths. Smaller panels pick up issues about the embodied self, inducements, privacy and the disruption to language and recognition that can occur with dementia. Glass is 6mm Tekta, Reusch Best Tracing Black and Orange silver stain.
Recomposed 2017, Glass Sculpture takes inspiration from neo-classical composer Max Richter’s master piece, Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons.
Richer reinterpreted and recomposed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, discarding 75% of the original composition, and looping the musical phrases that he chose to keep. This method of editing and looping emphasises his foundation in post-modern and minimalist music.
Recomposed 2017, Glass Sculpture further edits Richter’s composition, and loops the musical phrases by instead intersecting lines of black glass, which in turn imitate the musical notes and lines on sheet music. These delicate lines of black glass balance on the almost floating clear disk of glass below, which echos the minimalist approach Richter takes within his own musical compositions.
Fortunate to call Maestro Pino Signoretto one of my mentors.
He encouraged me to work on whymsical imaginative works like this.
His words to me years back-“Lee, your work shows great passion, you remind me of my dear friend-David Bennett”.
“You can come assist me”!
Inspired by the Austrian Artist and Architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser
I was inspired by Maurts Cornelis Escher's art works.
He is one of the world's most famous graphic artists.
He is famous for his so-called impossible constructions", such as Ascending and Descending ,Metamorphosis and....
He has explored subjects like infinity,reflection,symmetry,perspective and hyperbolic geometry.
These profound abstract ideas have impacted me deeply and have emerged in this art piece.
Although perhaps best known for her black and white Op Art works, I find Bridget Riley's paintings such as 'Pink Landscape', influenced by Seurat's pointillist style, to be inspirational when working with powder, frit and murrini cane. Creating a coherent whole, from many small elements, fascinates me and features often in my work. In this abstract landscape piece, the contours created by the juxtaposition of sheet glass, murrini, frit and clear coarse frit displacing the powder beneath, reminds me of Bridget Riley's landscapes.
I live and work in Japan, so naturally many aspects of the culture fascinate and inspire me. Haiku have been a source of inspiration for most of my career.
"Baby Sparrows, Move Aside, Sir Horse Passes", is one of the most famous Haiku by Kobayashi Issa. Issa, who lived in Japan in the 1800's is considered one of the "Great Four" Haiku poets who came to define the form. The others being Basho, Buson and Shiki. This particular translation is by David G Lanoue and I am extremely grateful to him for allowing me to use it as the title and inspiration of this piece. You can learn more about Haiku and the translations by David via his website
http://haikuguy.com/issa/aboutme.html
Country of Residence/Origin: Ireland
Date Made: May 2017
Size: glass size : 840 x 200cm each, Pate de Vere vessels 8cm x 5cm each
Short Description:
The piece is made up of two sheets of screen printed enamel fired glass. Six Pate de Vere vessels holding living plants, with airplants hanging beneath to denote roots. This was part of my degree show last year, and I was considering themes of abandonment and growth. I particularly love the work of photographer Nobyuki Kobayashi, who searches for a spiritual dimension in the beauty of nature.
Sometimes words are not enough to describe our feelings or thoughts. In these moments, our bodies can speak instead of us – another language we can’t hear but can see. When we reach for a touch, we give our hands. Hands are the main vocabulary of the body language. They tell us stories such as words do. My artwork speaks through the hands of Michelangelo, Durer and especially the hands of the “shadow play” theatre. The two glass hands combined together create a shadow of a bird – the mute swan, symbolizing our hidden, fragile and unrevealed sensuality
Country of Residence/Origin: Bulgaria
Date Made: September 2015
Size: H: 18cm; L: 35cm; W: 10cm
Title : Archityp
Year : 2018
Size: H 75 cm x W 50 cm x D 23 cm
materials: fiberglass, glass, mixed media
Only after finishing this very recent work, and then thinking about what associations emerged from it for me, did I remember that ever since I first started looking at art as a child, I have always loved the works of the 16th century Italian painter, Giuseppe Archimboldo. Of course, as a child when I first saw his paintings and heard this complicated name, I couldn’t even spell it, and now…………..?
Country UK
Date Made 2017
Size 30x 30cm
After Armageddon
We saw Damien Hirst's "Armageddon" at the Guggenheim New York, and for the past three years have been experimenting to get the depth and optical illusion of his dead flies set in resin, but using glass. We have tried our post apocalyptic topographies in a range of colours but always return to the original black/amber.
Golden Pisanello Hare
Inspired by Pisanello's 'The Vision of Saint Eustace' from the National Gallery. i have used spectrum 96 fusing glass and used goldline gold and brown paint in the first firing. The later firings have used gold mica to bring the hare to life. The gold leaf is a prominent part f the original painting, though not on the Hare. I was inspired to brighten his colour by the golden coloured wild rabbit which lives in the garden I see from the studio window.
UK resident
Made March 2018
Size 24 x 45 cm
Country of Residence/Origin: England, Lincolnshire
Date Made: March 2018
Size: 20x20x7cm approx
Short Description (max 100 words):
This piece is part of my final year degree work in Glass and Ceramics at Sunderland University. I am trying to capture both the flow and power of wave forms by anthropomorphising them. Modelling directly in wax I am incorporating figures into cast glass forms. I am using positive and negative space and suggestively sculpting the water to hint that it is made up of spirits. I am inspired by Czech glass artists such as Petr Stacho and the sculptor Frederick Hart’s work Order out of Chaos on the Western Facade of the National Cathedral in Washington DC.
coutry working in : Denmark
country of residence/origin: Switzerland
www.jonasniedermann.com
Dimensions; H（height)：38cm W（width) ：26cm D（depth)：14cm
Build up of hundred thin layers of glass the persona masks not only represent the different complex layers of a personality, but also draw references to the fragility of the human psyche. The intention in my work is to play with the viewer’s perception of material and challenge the classical usage of glass creating an illusion about its materiality. As in the words Swiss phychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung: „One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.“
Country of Residence & Origin: Costa Rica
Date made: January, 2018
Size: 40 cm x 90 cm x 12 cm
Name of the piece: Seemingly Neutral
Short Description: The use of color, line, light and texture by the artist Morgan Van Madison, from Denver Colorado, inspires me very much.
"NEUTRAL PROJECTS TO THE OUTSIDE, SENSITIVE IS IN ITS INTERIOR TO THE COLD AND THE HEAT, TO THE SAID AND TO THE MISERY, TO THE LOVE AND TO HEARTBREAK; IN THE HIGH AND IN THE LOWS.
THIS WORK MAKES ALUSION TO THE STATES OF MOOD, USING CHANGES OF COLOR TEMPERATURE AS A PRISON BETWEEN THE STABLE EXTERNAL APPEARANCE."