ˇ harcuba jirà april surgent
traces of ourselves
ˇ harcuba jirà april surgent
traces of ourselves
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Life is a dialog. Dialog with oneself as well as with others. We understand the wisdom that to be able not to know is the greatest art of all. By engraving we leave traces. Traces of ourselves. The task of a teacher is to bring closer the most valuable, to discover the worthful. JIRI HARCUBA 2008
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Jiri Harcuba, F. Kafka, 2007, fused and engraved glass, 18.125 x 18.125 x .25 inches
April Surgent, 21st Century Bushland, 2008, fused and cameo-engraved glass, 19.625 x 27.125 x 2.25 inches installed
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APRIL SURGENT 2008
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“We are the link between the past and the future.”
JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO VII, 2007
In 2003, April Surgent, a third year student of glass at the Canberra School of Art, met Czech master Jiri Harcuba for the first time in his two-week engraving course at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington.
it is, the strength of Harcuba’s work has been determined equally by his prolific travel, his many years of teaching – while learning – abroad, and likely by his charmingly contrarian personality.
Five years later Surgent and Harcuba returned to Pilchuck to teach together. At 26 Surgent is the youngest artist to lead a course at the noted glass school; in his eighth decade, Harcuba is the oldest.
“Professor Libensky tried to convince me to leave off engraving – he argued it had no perspective. He said I should become a painter. Everyone in Prague thought that at the time.”2
Much of the impetus for their team teaching1 evolved from their joint residencies at the Bullseye Glass factory in 2007 and 2008.
April Surgent
This catalog is a glimpse into the ideas and imagery of both artists, but more importantly, it is a short, largely visual story of student and master, of their responses to ideas and material, of their explorations at the interface of painting and glass, and lastly to each other. ˇ Harcuba Jirí
“All my ancestors worked with glass.” Harcuba’s incisive statement captures both the resource and the challenge of his work. Having begun his career assisting his father in the family workshop in the village of Harrachov (in what is now the Czech Republic), he was by age 13 an apprentice engraver in a glass factory. By age 16 Harcuba was enrolled in the glass school at Nový Bor, studying with, among others, the renowned Professor Stanislav Libensky with whom he continued a long working relationship, eventually being appointed to a professorship alongside his early mentor at the Academy in Prague. As tied to the rich traditions and methods of Czech glass as
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There is a similarly appealing stubbornness in April Surgent that probably made it inevitable she’d one day meet her karmic match as she followed her own glass trajectory from blowing at age 14 in Seattle, Washington, at 16 in Denmark, then eventually as an undergraduate in the glass workshop of Canberra’s Australian National University. In the world of contemporary studio glass, blowing is considered by many to be the pinnacle. Surgent “went there, did that” early on. Once at the Canberra School of Art she moved quickly to coldworking – that unglamorous, un-hot, underexplored territory of grinding wheels, muddy slurry and perpetually prune-y fingertips. By the summer of 2003, when Surgent enrolled in Harcuba’s course at Pilchuck she was carving the surfaces of multilayered fused glass panels to create ephemeral washes of light and color, Rothko-esque vignettes in glass more akin to painting than to the cut surface patterning typical of much coldworked glass. Under Harcuba, Surgent learned not only cutting techniques but, more importantly, she learned to focus, to be patient, to not be distracted by “success” or the opinions of others.
April Surgent, Don’t Wait for Me, 2006, fused and cameo-engraved glass, 22.25 x 16.875 x .25 inches Collection of Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia 7
April Surgent, But You Won’t Look Back, 2006, fused and cameo-engraved glass, 17.125 x 33.5 x 1.875 inches installed Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington (promised gift of D. and L. Anderson)
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Master and Student “She’s the only student I’ve had in fifty years of teaching who learned to [engrave] from the point of view of a painter.”3 Harcuba seems to take a certain smug satisfaction in the success of a young artist whose accomplishments argue against the advice he never took from his own professor so many years ago. “What I learned from April?” the master pondered my question for only a moment before he replied, “I learned that engraving does not need to be limited in size. I learned to think about it in an architectural scale and to think more about making paintings in glass.”4
This then was the impetus for the Harcuba/Surgent sessions that we hosted at the factory in the summers of 2007 and 2008. This catalog is an effort to capture a glimpse of the moments that, like quick sketches or notes in the artists’ sketchbooks, reflect the energy at the start of one career and at the peak of another, sufficient unto themselves, but amplified as they collide across lives and lifetimes. LANI MCGREGOR Director, Bullseye Gallery September 2008
ENDNOTES
The Bullseye Artist Exchange After Surgent’s short course with Harcuba in the summer of 2003, the two exchanged letters as the master continued his prolific teaching schedule and Surgent, who graduated in 2004, embarked on her own travels – first across Europe, then to a residency at Bullseye’s Portland factory, then to North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland and eventually back to Australia. In the intervening four years Surgent’s young star continued to ascend, with museum acquisitions5 and a major commercial commission6 . Equally exciting – to us at least – Harcuba discovered Bullseye glass. After seeing his engraved portrait of Schopenhauer cut into a fused panel of Bullseye in the 2006 New Glass Review 7, it was impossible for us to resist the temptation to invite the master and his former student to come together again, not to collaborate, but to explore side-by-side, to share ideas and methods across the divide – and the bridge – of four generations.
1. In addition to their teaching at Pilchuck, Harcuba and Surgent have also taught together at the Bullseye factory in the summer of 2007 and at Scotland’s North Lands Creative Glass in the summer of 2008. 2. From an interview between the author and the artists in September 2008 at North Lands Creative Glass. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. The Museum of Glass and the Chrysler Museum both added Surgent works to their inventories in 2008. 6. The Hotel Murano commissioned Surgent to create an 8-part set of wall panels for their lobby in Tacoma, Washington. 7. New Glass Review 27 (Corning, NY: The Corning Museum of Glass, 2006), 23.
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The role of the school is to draw near history, to discover its greatest treasures and find inspirations for contemporary creativity. To liberate the “Queen’s technique” of glass – the glass-engraving from a professional perfectionism – to open it for Autodidacts and Beginners. JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO I, 2001
Jiri Harcuba and April Surgent with Ted Sawyer, Bullseye’s Head of Research and Eduction, at Bullseye Glass Co.’s factory studios, 2007. The residency was an opportunity for the artists to make large-scale work. The artists and the resource team spent time discussing proposed ideas and working out the logistics of working large.
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Jiri Harcuba, April Surgent, 2008, vitreograph, 11 x 8.5 inches Sketch and quote fragment (left) by April Surgent, 2008.
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[Harcuba] treasures a profound respect for the tradition of engraving his material with a vigor and sense of spontaneity that produce unforgettable, sometimes startling images of artistic, intellectual, and political giants, living and dead. He teaches others to immerse themselves in what he calls the Zen of drawing on glass: forget your inhibitions, draw
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spontaneously. Be like a child, he urges his students; better, be like preschool children, before the classroom has conditioned them to conform. DAVID WHITEHOUSE, DIRECTOR, CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS, JIRI HARCUBA, 2007
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Coldworking at Bullseye’s factory studios in 2007, Surgent experiments with cutting on a larger scale, working with a tool that is taken to the glass, rather than the traditional manner of taking the glass to the tool.
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Sketches by April Surgent, 2007.
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Harcuba at Bullseye’s factory studios in 2007, experimenting with a pneumatic hand tool for the first time (above). A variety of grinding bits for use with the hand tool (right).
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Jiri Harcuba, J.S. Bach, 2008, fused and engraved glass, 18.125 x 18.125 x .25 inches
26 Jiri Harcuba, Frank Zappa, 2008, fused and engraved glass, 16.125 x 16.125 x .25 inches
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Jiri Harcuba, Frank Zappa, 2008, vitreograph, 21.5 x 22.5 inches
28 Jiri Harcuba, printed by Marshall Hyde, A. Camus, 2008, vitreograph, 22.5 x 7.625 inches
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Jiri Harcuba, Albert Camus, 2008, fused and engraved glass, 16.125 x 16.125 x .25 inches
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Harcuba cutting on the engraving lathe at Bullseye’s coldworking studios in 2007 – a master at work.
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Jiri Harcuba, AntonĂn DvorĂĄk, 2008, fused and engraved glass, 16.125 x 16.125 x .25 inches Shown completed (left), and in process (right). Artist statement fragments (below) by April Surgent, 2008.
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Sketch of Jiri Harcuba by April Surgent, 2008.
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Every period evaluates the past. The “old” is beaten or neglected, to be in the next periods again rehabilitated. JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO I, 2001
Sketch by April Surgent, 2007.
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April Surgent, Crossing Eurobodalla, 2008, fused and cameo-engraved glass, 14.375 x 10 x 2.25 inches installed
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April Surgent, Waiting for Rain, 2008, fused and cameo-engraved glass, 15 x 14.875 x 2.25 inches installed
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My work is both a record and reaction to our global communities and life as I experience it. I capture what I have discovered to tell silent stories of contemporary life. APRIL SURGENT 2008
Sketches by April Surgent, 2008.
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Jiri Harcuba, (left) Plato, 2008, vitreograph, 11.375 x 9.125 inches; (right) George Orwell, 2007, vitreograph, 8.5 x 10.875 inches (facing page) Lao Tzu, 2007, vitreograph, 15 x 11.25 inches
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All my ancestors worked with glass. I am showing [the] relationship of prehistoric carving and contemporary art. We are the link between the past and the future. JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO VII, 2007
(above) Jiri Harcuba and Marshall Hyde, making prints from glass plates at Bullseye’s factory studios, 2008. (right) Jiri Harcuba, Marc Chagall, 2007, vitreograph, 7.875 x 11.375 inches
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“To see everything in our world as a piece of art, as a poem!” MARC CHAGALL, quoted by JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO VII, 2007
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ˇ HARCUBA JIRÍ Born 1928, Harrachov, Czech Republic Resides Prague, Czech Republic Education/Training 1961 Postgraduate Studies, Academy of Applied Arts, Prague (1957-1961) 1954 Graduated from Academy of Applied Arts, Prague 1948 Specialized School of Glassmaking, Nový Bor, Czech Republic (1945-1948) 1945 Apprentice glass engraver, Harrach Glass Factory, Prague (1942-1945) Selected Professional Experience 2008 Short-term teaching, universities and summer glass schools in Europe, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Australia (1980-present) 2001 Founder, Dominik Biman School, Harrachov, Czech Republic 1994 Chancellor, Academy of Applied Arts, Prague (1991-1994) 1990 Professor, Academy of Applied Arts, Prague 1990 Freelance glass artist and medal and coin designer in Europe, USA, Japan (1971-1990) 1971 Associate professor and professor’s assistant, Academy of Applied Arts, Prague (1961-1971) 1966 Study visit, Royal College of Art, London 1949 Glass engraver, Atelier “Art Glass,” Nový Bor, Czech Republic (1948-1949) Selected Collections Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic National Gallery, Prague Stiftung museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, Germany Ulster Museum, Belfast
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Selected Solo Exhibitions 2008 Jiri Harcuba - Glassmaker and Sculptor, Brno City Museum, Brno, Czech Republic 2003 Ostrava Museum, Ostrava, Czech Republic 2003 Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, Germany 1995 Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY 1995 Glasgalerie Hittfeld, Harburg, Germany 1993 Neues Rathaus, Weiden, Germany 1992 Augustiner Museum, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany 1988 Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic 1979 J. & L. Lobmeyr Gallery, Vienna 1978 Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic 1969 Castello Sforzesco, Milan Selected Honors and Awards 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, Glass Art Society Conference, Pittsburgh 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, UrbanGlass, Brooklyn 1995 Rakow Commission, Corning Museum, Corning, New York 1988 Lifetime Achievement Award, American Numismatic Society, New York 1972 Commissioned to design the silver coin for the 50th Anniversary of establishing Czechoslovakia 1966 First Prize for Cut Glass, Triennial of Cut Glass, Brno, Czech Republic 1963 First Prize, CFVU Competition, Czech Republic
Jiri Harcuba, O. Kokoschka (front and back views), 2007, fused and engraved glass, 6.125 x 6.125 x .25 inches Jiri Harcuba, P. Gauguin (front and back views), 2007, fused and engraved glass, 6.125 x 6.125 x .25 inches
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“Only the world of ideas is real.” PLATO, quoted by JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO VII, 2007
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Surgent, pulling a print from an engraved plate in Bullseye’s factory studios, 2008.
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APRIL SURGENT Born Missoula, Montana, 1982 Resides Seattle, Washington Education/Training 2006 Lienors Torre, coldworking workshop, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington 2004 BFA with Honours, Australian National University School of Art, Canberra 2003 Jiri Harcuba, coldworking workshop, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington 2002 Irene Frolic, casting workshop, Australian National University School of Art, Canberra 2000 College for Creative Studies, Detroit Boyd Sugiki, hot glass workshop, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle 1999 Nadege Desgenetez, hot glass workshop, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle Professional Experience 2008 Instructor, Coldworking workshop, Australian National University School of Art, Glass Workshop, Canberra Co-instructor with Jiri Harcuba, “Tradition and Innovation” coldworking class, North Lands Creative Glass, Lybster, Scotland Co-instructor with Jiri Harcuba, “Zen Graving” coldworking class, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington Presenter, Demonstration Lecture, Glass Art Society Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon 2007 Instructor, “The Maker’s Mark,” coldworking class, UrbanGlass, Brooklyn Co-instructor with Jiri Harcuba, “Fresh Coldshop Cuts in Kilnformed Glass,” Bullseye Resource Center, Portland, Oregon 2006 Studio assistant to Preston Singletary, coldworking, Seattle 2005 Teaching assistant to Susan Cohn, North Lands Creative Glass, Lybster, Scotland Coldworker, pole-turner session, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington Teaching assistant to Kirstie Rea, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington Studio assistant to Preston Singletary, coldworking, Seattle Studio assistant to Joe Benvenuto, coldworking, Seattle
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2004 2003 2002 2001 1998
Studio assistant to Kirstie Rea, Canberra Assistant to Jane Bruce, hot glass, Canberra Assistant to Scott Chaseling, hot glass, Canberra Assistant, hot glass, Chihuly Inc., Seattle Assistant, hot glass, Pernille Bülow Studios, Svaneke, Denmark
Selected Exhibitions and Art Fairs 2008 SOFA, Chicago (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon) Traces of Ourselves, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon (joint exhibition with Jiri Harcuba) 2007 COLLECT, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon) Pilchuck Glass School: Emerging Artists in Residence, Friesen Gallery, Seattle 2006 A Meandering Tale, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon (solo exhibition) Painting with Light: Artists That Paint On and With Glass, Palos Verdes Art Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, California SOFA, Chicago (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon) 2005 SOFA, Chicago (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon) Seeds of Light: 20 Years of Graduates from the Glass Workshop, Australian National University School of Art Gallery, Canberra 2004 Green: 2004 Graduating Students Exhibition, Australian National University School of Art, Canberra e-merge, Bullseye Resource Center, Portland, Oregon Emerging Artists 2004, Tobin Hewett Gallery, Louisville Intersection: The Canberra Connection, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon 2003 Legacy, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon International Student Exhibition, Glass Art Society Annual Conference, Seattle 2002 Kamberra Glass Prize, Kamberra Wine Center, Canberra Reflect, Spiral Gallery, Bega, Australia 2001 Kamberra Glass Prize, Kamberra Wine Center, Canberra 2000 Scholarship Recipients, College for Creative Studies, Detroit
Selected Collections and Commissions
Australian National University Public Artwork Program, Canberra Bradley Allen Acquisition Award, Canberra Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Embassy of Spain Art Collection, Canberra Hotel Murano, commission for lobby, Tacoma, Washington Kamberra Wine Center, Canberra Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington (promised gift)
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Awards, Grants, Publications and Research Funding 2008 Artist/Factory Exchange Project with Jiri Harcuba, Bullseye Glass Co., Portland, Oregon Artist in Residence, Australian National University School of Art, Glass Workshop, Canberra Michele Corriel, “Ones to Watch,” Western Art & Architecture 2007 Shawn Waggoner, “Glass City: April Surgent’s Fused and Cameo Engraved Panels,” Glass Art Magazine (cover)
2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
Artist/Factory Exchange Project with Jiri Harcuba, Bullseye Glass Co., Portland, Oregon Emerging Artist in Residence, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington Juror’s Choice (Tina Oldknow), New Glass Review, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York University Medal, Australian National University, Canberra Artist/Factory Exchange Project with Jiri Harcuba, Bullseye Glass Co., Portland, Oregon Travelling Scholarship, Embassy of Spain, Canberra Dean’s List, Australian National University School of Art, Canberra (and 2003, 2002, 2001) Honors Scholarship for 2004, Australian National University School of Art, Canberra Commission, International Year of Freshwater Design Competition, Canberra Kamberra Glass Prize, Kamberra Wine Center, Canberra Australian National University Gift Prize, Canberra Dean’s List, College for Creative Studies, Detroit (and 2000) Full tuition scholarship, College for Creative Studies, Detroit
April Surgent, I’ll Watch the Road and You Dream (group of 5 panels), By the Guidance of the Crow (group of 3 panels), 2007 kilnformed and cameo-engraved glass, 24 x 121 x 2.25 inches installed Collection of Hotel Murano, Tacoma, Washington
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bullseye gallery Published in conjunction with the exhibition: Jiri Harcuba + April Surgent Traces of Ourselves October 7 - November 22, 2008 For artwork and artist information, contact: Bullseye Gallery 300 NW 13th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97209 503-227-0222 phone 503-227-0008 fax gallery@bullseyeglass.com www.bullseyegallery.com Cover and first page image Jiri Harcuba and April Surgent April by Jiri, Jiri by April, 2008 pen on paper with collage, 9 x 6 inches A note on the notebooks Jiri Harcuba’s self-published series Intaglio I-VIII was created between 2001-2007 and edited by the Dominik Biman Society.
To engrave means leaving traces of the wheel, to listen to the speech of wheels, to leave [your] own marks.
Design Nicole Leaper Photography Patrick Leonard Photography/Production Jerry Sayer Printing Irwin Hodson, Portland, Oregon
JIRI HARCUBA, ARTIST NOTEBOOKS - INTAGLIO VII, 2007
© 2008 BULLSEYE GLASS CO. ISBN: 978-1-935299-00-4
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