richard marquis published in conjunction with the artist's exhibition AUGUST 4 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2004
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House with Horn, 2004 hot slab construction 9.75 x 8 x 6.75 inches
CONTINUOUS COMPATIBILITY TEST
I want to acknowledge Bullseye's significant contribution to the glass community in general and its specific enablement of my own personal futzing...and this exhibition displays quite a bit of futzing. Blessed with a short little span of attention, I am often working on half a dozen glass projects at once. Some of these projects have a life of a few days or a few weeks (sometimes a few hours). Other projects like the ‘scarpas and the slab constructions refuse to let me lose interest. The slab project which began a few years ago with the cars has morphed into odd shapes like dustpans, scoops, houses, boats, and wedding cakes. The slab project has become a fascinating exercise in pain, suffering and frustration. And not just for me, but the whole slab team. Hard fun. So there you have it. Sometimes I think my recent work is just one long continuous compatibility test. Other times I realize what a great job I have. Ninety-nine percent of the glass used in this show was Bullseye. Thanks,
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SNAZZY SKEUOMORPHS
Let me guess: you were wondering about the title and why I chose it. Okay, technically, this confident, handsome, and dare I say stylish red and blue striped dustpan is known as a skeuomorph.1 The skeuomorphic leitmotif that runs through Dick’s work began, perhaps, with the “American Acid Capsules” that he made at Venini in the early 1970's.2 It pops up here and there after that. One of the more notable occurrences, in my opinion, was Dick’s collection of wood anvils. If those anvils were ancient, they might be described by art historians or archaeologists today as “ceremonial” since they are clearly nonfunctional. However, Dick says he made them to save on shipping costs. This is a sobering thought for anyone whose job consists of trying to figure out why people do and make things.
such as the exquisitely composed and colored collection of murrine eggs in their pristine cups, or it is about pathos, the companion of beauty, which is illustrated by the vessel-laden murrine elephant. Skeuomorphs with beauty, humor, charm, subversion, and pathos: this is a crew of nouns as motley as Dick’s unlikely assemblages. But you have to admit, they are appealing, aren’t they?
Speaking of trying to figure things out, my sense of logic is put to the test by such quintessentially Dick Marquis objects as the snug collection of easy-going brown potatoes, punctuated by a clownish Mr. Potato Head, that is displayed against a paint-by-number image of wild horses in an arid, scrub-filled canyon. I enjoy the subversion of this piece, as I enjoy Dick’s gorgeous blue and yellow destroyer, with its lovely, menacing fin. These pieces are humorous, but the approach is sophisticated and smart rather than slapstick and stupid. Dick’s work is often about subversion, and it can be particularly charming in its subversiveness. But, sometimes the work is about beauty,
1Dick loves footnotes and big words with which he can beat others at Scrabble. So, I am indulging him. In the article “Skeuomorphs and Cultural Algorithms,” Nicholas Gessler tells us that a skeuomorph is a material metaphor (http://www. sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/gessler/cv-pubs/98skeuo.htm). Warwick Bray and David Trump’s Dictionary of Archaeology (London: Penguin Group, 1982) defines “skeuomorph” as “an object which in its shape or decoration copies the form it had when made in another material or by another technique.” For example, the pellets at the base of a pottery handle that copy the rivets in a metal prototype. Or, a nonfunctional, ceremonial jade axe that copies a functional bronze prototype. Or, a glass dustpan.
Tina Oldknow CURATOR OF MODERN GLASS The Corning Museum of Glass Oldknow is author of the definitive Richard Marquis Objects, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1997.
2This is my last footnote. Really. The “American Acid Capsules” are red, white, and blue glass, stars-and-stripes versions of prescription barbiturates, such as Darvon and Seconal, which were popular recreational drugs at the time.
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Dust Pan 04-6, 2004 hot slab construction, 3.75 x 15.5 x 10.5 inches
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The cars, boats, cakes, dustpans, and houses are all made using a technique I call “slab construction�.
Car 02-66, 2002 glass, wood, brass, 4.25 x 21.5 x 10 inches
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This process requires a coordinated team, silver suits, masks, torches, and lots of yelling, kinda like a gang of bank robbers. Car 03-1, 2003 glass, wood, brass, 4.5 x 17.5 x 6 inches
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Slab construction is similar to sailing:
Trawler, 2004 hot slab construction, 9.25 x 20 x 5 inches
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...hours of boredom punctuated by a few minutes of panic.
Boat with Cone, 2004 hot slab construction, 6.5 x 14.75 x 3 inches
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So many of the processes I’m now doing are quite removed from actual glassblowing;
Car 03-3, 2003 glass, wood, brass, 4.75 x 18.5 x 6.75 inches
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...they’re more like cooking, really high temperature cooking.
House on Raft, 2004 hot slab construction, 5.5 x 12.25 x 7.25 inches
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I consider myself primarily a glassblower and the zanfirico bird forms allow me to use traditional Italian blowing techniques which are just so spiritually rewarding (this means they are fun to make). Birds 03-8, 03-5, 03-6, 2003 blown glass, zanfirico technique, tallest is 12.5 inches
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The tactile qualities of the granulare murrine ďŹ nally suggested a form that was pleasant to hold and not fragile...
Egg with Egg Cup 04-11 (detail), 2004 blown glass, 8.75 x 4.25 x 4.25 inches
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...hence the mother of all shapes: the egg
The shapes of the Marquiscarpas have continually held my interest...
Marquiscarpas 04-1, 04-2, 2004 fused, slumped, blown and wheel-carved glass murrine technique, 6.5 x 8 x 3 inches each
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...because of the seemingly endless contradictory variations inherent in such a formal shape. Yahoo.
Marquiscarpa 04-3, 2004 fused, slumped, blown and wheel-carved glass murrine technique, 5.75 x 7.5 x 3 inches
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Marquiscarpa 04-4 (detail), 2004 fused, slumped, blown and wheel-carved glass murrine technique, 8.25 x 7 x 5.5 inches
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Marquiscarpas 04-5, 04-3, 04-2, 04-4 (top views), 2004 fused, slumped, blown and wheel-carved glass murrine technique, widest is 8 inches
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Granulare Bird 03-4, 2003 blown and hot-sculpted glass, granulare technique 13.75 x 8 x 4.75 inches
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The elephant shape probably appeals to me due to its similarity to teapot shapes. Except the ears, and the legs, and the tail.
Elephant 03-4, 2003 blown and hot-sculpted glass, granulare technique, 10.25 x 5.75 x 5.25 inches
It’s tricky to pull off an elegant solution using an intrinsically clunky object like a potato.
Potato Head Box 01-1, 2001 mixed media, 18 x 24 x 4 inches
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Turning them into seemingly delicious packages of starch in rainbow colors makes it easier.
Potato Box 03-2, 2003 blown glass, plate glass, found object, paint, 19.75 x 24.25 x 5.25 inches
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RICHARD MARQUIS Born Currently
Bumblebee, AZ, 1945 Artist, Freeland, WA
Education/Training 1972 M.A., University of California, Berkeley 1969 B.A., University of California, Berkeley Selected Honors and Awards 2004 Libensky Award, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Artist Series Meritage, Woodinville, WA 2000 Outstanding Achievement in Glass, UrbanGlass, New York, NY Selected Distinguished Alumnus, College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley, CA 1995 Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Crafts Council, New York, NY 1990 National Endowment for the Arts Grant 1988 Fulbright-Hayes Grant (Senior), New Zealand 1982 Research Grant, U.C.L.A. Fulbright-Hayes Grant (Senior), New Zealand 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Grant Research Grant, U.C.L.A. 1980 Research Grant, U.C.L.A. 1979 Research Grant, U.C.L.A. 1978 National Endowment for the Arts Grant 1976 Australian Crafts Council Grant 1975 Australian Crafts Council Grant 1974 National Endowment for the Arts Grant Australian Crafts Council Grant 1969 Fulbright Grant, Venice, Italy (Venini & Co.) 1967 President’s Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley, CA 1966 Eisner Prize for Design, U.C. Berkeley, CA 1963 National Merit Scholarship
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Selected Public Collections American Glass Museum, Millville, NJ Australian Council for the Arts, Sydney, Australia Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA City Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, NY Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA Dowse Art Museum, Wellington, New Zealand Finnish National Glass Museum, Riihimaki, Finland Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY Johnson Wax Collection, Racine, WI Koganezaki Glass Museum, Shizuoka, Japan Kunstmuseum, im Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf, Germany Lannan Foundation Museum, Palm Beach Community College Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Mint Museum of Art/Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ Museum of Art, Auckland, New Zealand Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY (formerly American Craft Museum) Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland Museum fur Künsthandwerk, Frankfurt, Germany National Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia National Glasmuseum, Leerdam, Holland National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. New Glass Museum, Tsukuba, Japan New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia Prescott Collection of Pilchuck Glass at U.S. Bank Centre, Seattle, WA Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Seattle First National Bank, Seattle, WA Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Seattle, WA Swedish Hospital and Medical Center, Seattle, WA Tasmanian Art Museum, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England World Modern Glass Arts Museum, Hiroshima, Japan
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I am very happy to hide back here behind a pile of potatoes. After seeing the work that Dick is sending for this exhibition I feel awed, giddy, honored and sure that I will run an even larger gamut of emotion during the course of the exhibition. The range of response to this artist and his work is close to immeasurable. I remember my first really strong emotion about the work. On a plane into Corning for the 1991 Glass Art Society conference I was talking to Ruth Summers, who has always been at the top of an exceptional list of dealers that Dick has worked with over the years. Ruth was describing the new Marquiscarpa pieces with amazement and enthusiasm. And relating the tragic problems Dick was having in coldworking them: 80-90% were breaking up during the final grinding due to incompatibilities in the glass. “All right!” I remember thinking gleefully, “maybe he’ll try Bullseye!” It’s now been over a dozen years since Dick started using our glass. My knee-jerk delight at an artist’s misfortune has been followed by swelling pride every time I see a new body of work, dense with ideas, humor, color and technical skill – all made with our glass. Then I see the potatoes and am pitched soundly off my high horse. All of us at Bullseye – factory and gallery – are proud and humbled to host this extraordinary exhibition. Lani McGregor EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Bullseye Connection June 2004
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the end © 2004 Bullseye Glass Co.
PUBLISHED BY
Bullseye Glass Co. 3722 SE 21st Avenue, Portland, OR 97202 DETAIL IMAGES
page 3 Trawler (detail), 2004 hot slab construction, 9.25 x 20 x 5 inches
pages 16-17 Eggs with Egg Cups, 2004 blown glass, tallest is 10 inches with cup
page 30 Marquiscarpa 04-4 (top view), 2004 fused, slumped, blown and wheel-carved glass murrine technique, 8.25 x 7 x 5.5 inches
For inquiries about the artists or works shown, please contact: The Bullseye Connection Gallery 300 NW 13th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 T 503-227-0222 F 503-227-0008
E gallery@bullseyeglass.com DESIGN
Nicole Leaper PRODUCTION
Jerry Sayer PHOTOGRAPHY
R. Marquis