Gallery Tours of Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature, and Out of the Vault: Art History 101 ♿

Not surprisingly, artists have looked to the natural world for inspiration for millennia. And, since the turn of the 20th century, there have been significant moments in which artists have sought to mimic the forms and patterns of nature in glass. Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature begins with works from the Art Nouveau period, roughly between 1890 and 1910, centered in France during the Belle Époque. The movement’s signature focus on blossoms, birds, and insects combined with sinuous organic tendrils was a reaction against the academic style and historicism of the previous century. These stylistic markers shone with particular brilliance in the decorative and applied arts and architecture. The style reached its apogee at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where the Art Nouveau interpretations in glass by Émile Gallé, René Lalilque, and the Daum Brothers were introduced.

More than a century later, contemporary glass artists have been similarly inspired by the natural world as a focus in their work. Included in this exhibition is the series Native Species by William Morris. In this body of work, Morris used the hot shop metaphorically as a walk through a Pacific Northwest forest, creating thirty-eight vessels with applied hot-sculpted pinecones, pine needles, deciduous leaves, and birds. Vittorio Costantini created a series of three hundred lampworked glass insect specimens, as etymologically correct possible, to rival an arthropod collection at a natural history museum. Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have devoted much of their studio practice to the assiduous observation of nature. They have advanced the tradition of ornithological illustration—inspired by the likes of John James Audubon and John Gould — to literally “draw” birds in glass powder on glass “pages.” They have also collected botanical specimens and developed a means to preserve them in composite and glass. These works are similar to traditional herbaria specimens, but remarkably retain the true colors of the plant. These contemporary artists in no way imitate the style of Art Nouveau, but their fascination with forms in nature are sympathetic to their artistic forebears.

The exhibition is called Field Notes, in reference to the practice of natural historians, professional and amateur, recording observations while being in nature. The innately curious artists in this exhibition have trained their prodigious skills in glass in the same way, honoring the natural world in their work, and reminding the viewer of the marvelous phenomena outside of the studio walls.

Exhibiting Artists: Leopold Blaschka, Rudolph Blaschka, Vittorio Costantini, Daum Frères (also known as Daum Nancy), Kathleen Elliot, Émile Gallé, Deborah Horrell, Malia Jensen, René Lalique, Suzanne Lalique-Haviland, Flora C. Mace/Joey Kirkpatrick, Debora Moore, William Morris, Alexis Rockman, Raven Skyriver, Paul Stankard, Amalric Walter

Out of the Vault: Art History 101

As a material, glass is ubiquitous. However, it is more than just the screen on your smartphone. Glass is an artistic medium, capable of using a vibrant visual language to convey powerful ideas about who we are, and how we feel about the world around us.