Reminiscence Exhibition Catalogue 11.08.17 - 03.09.17
Peter Layton in his studio 1978.
This year of celebrations would not be complete without a look at Peter Layton’s highly successful glass career. With Reminiscence, London Glassblowing puts the focus squarely on its founder, presenting a selection of his iconic works, some of which date from the early 1980’s. In 1976, when Peter started his first studio at Rotherhithe, he was subsidising it with teaching and coping on an overdraft, while exploring new ideas in this ‘new’ medium and discovering its nuances. New members joined as the years passed, adding their talents to the mix. Now in 2017, in his eightieth year, his studio is one of the longest running hot glass studios in the UK with an international reputation. Looking back to this exciting pioneering time, when studio glass was at its beginnings, Peter has returned to some of his early series including iridising and Kimono. Reminiscence offers a rare opportunity to acquire iconic early pieces from Peter’s past studios, including sculptural and conceptual works and also these very special series revisited, created anew in his Bermondsey Street studio. This catalogue offers a selection of the work on show. Please contact Gallery Manager, Gena Johns to purchase, or to request more information about the work.
ROTHERHITHE 1976 - 1995
“In the early 20th century, some of the greatest glassmakers of the Art Nouveau movement were inspired to recreate the iridised effects of ancient, long buried Syrian and Roman vessels. In turn, some forty or so years ago, London Glassblowing began to make its name through iridising, rediscovering the extraordinary qualities of this arduous process. As a former potter, I enjoyed the smooth silky texture of the glass surface, and above all, I loved the range of wonderful colours akin to oil on water or the wings of certain beetles and butterflies. Since historically, glassmakers were always secretive, it involved huge amounts of experimentation and detective work. Imagine the eureka moments when we broke through and achieved a new and magical effect - an electric blue or gold. After a number of years creating pebbles and shellforms at my Rotherhithe studio, I felt it was time to move on; that this type of work, delightful as it was, harked back too much to earlier times, and so my studio began to develop the colours and effects we use now…. Revisiting this technique, with the help of Richard Golding in his tiny studio at Station Glass near Market Bosworth, has been an unexpected and thoroughly enjoyable experience. I am delighted with the results.” - Peter Layton
Group of iridised pieces, including work by Peter Layton, Siddy Langley, and Carin von Drehle, 1980.
Iridised Vase (Flotsam and Jetsam), 1980s Free blown iridised glass H 14 cm x W 11 cm x D 8 cm ÂŁ1,200
Iridised Pebbleform, 1980s Free blown iridised glass H 6 cm x W 18 cm x D 17 cm £1,200
Iridising Revisited - Small Dropper, 2017 H 20 cm x W 11 cm x D 7 cm Free blown iridised glass ÂŁ650
“. . . I experimented, trying to find a way in which the glass would glow without fancy lighting. I came up with the iridised colours for which my first studio became known.�
ROTHERHITHE 1976 - 1995
Iridising Revisited - Iridised Cloudform, 2017 H 6 cm x W 14 cm x D 12 cm Free blown iridised glass ÂŁ480
Iridising Revisited - Pebbleform, 2017 7 cm x 15 cm x 14 cm Free blown iridised glass ÂŁ620
Iridising Revisited - Iridised Cloudforms, 2017 left: H 5 cm x W 12 cm x D 11 cm, right: H 8 cm x W 15 cm x D 14 cm Free blown iridised glass left: £620, right: £650
1989, Kimono coralform.
Iridised piece 2
Kimono
After several years, at Rotherhithe, attempting to perfect my iridised palette and following a trip to Japan, I decided to concentrate on a body of work which was primarily black, or indigo, and white. This coincided with my introduction to etching the glass to achieve a matte or frosted surface, which again appealed to my penchant for texture and the possibility of touching and handling the glass as well as viewing it. Acid etching is a dangerous technique but as a metalworker one of my assistants at the time introduced me to Sugar Acid, a much safer way of achieving this. Kimono was the most satisfying expression of my current interests, and I have thoroughly enjoyed trying to recreate the tactile qualities of that series again.
Kimono Revisited - Coralform, 2017 H 18 cm x 26 cm x D 22 cm Free blown glass, etched ÂŁ1,100
Kimono Revisited - Flared Dropper, 2017 H 28 cm x W 19 cm x D 9 cm Free blown glass etched ÂŁ950
Kimono Revisited -Coralforms, 2017 left: H 28 cm x W 28 cm x D 23 cm, right: H 23 cm x W 24 cm x D 24 cm Free blown glass, etched left: £1,500, right: £1,100
Peter Layton in the studio, 1980s, with Julia Donnelly, and other team member
Standing Stones 1988
During the mid 1980’s, inspired by the Neolithic stones at Avebury and the pre-Celtic stones in the Breton village of Carnac, I had the idea of making groups of stone and pebble forms in etched glass. The essence of these groups was that they were interactive: they could be reconfigured in a number of different ways. In revisiting this concept I have chosen to explore the tactile qualities and visual textures of Kimono.
Standing Stones Revisited, 2017 H 20cm x W 21 cm x D 13 cm Free blown glass, etched £ 1,300
Standing Stones Revisited, 2017 H 23 cm x W 17 cm x D 12 cm Free blown glass, etched £ 1,300
THE LEATHERMARKET 1995 - 2009
The ethos that Peter champions and practises is one of the few things that have stayed constant in these changing times. Throughout the Leathermarket years London Glassblowing remained a bastion of creativity and symbiosis, where personal creative freedom thrived despite the need for the studio to survive. The result of his remarkable leadership was that the studio evolved, blending basic glassmaking techniques with Peter’s innate sense of form and colour, to create pieces that could stand alongside the work of any studio in the world. - David Flower
THE LEATHERMARKET 1995 - 2009
Battery 2004
Battery, is one of a series entitled ‘Matters of the Heart’, a caged assembly of 36 blown glass hearts, 21 felt jackets and fibre optic lighting. Peter says, “Between birth and death there are only precious present moments, encompassing love, joy, passion, strength, courage, wisdom, humour, generosity, creativity, freedom - and of course, their opposites. In squandering these we are obliged to live with the consequences.”
Caged assembly of 36 blown glass hearts, 21 felt jackets and fibre optic lighting H 80 cm x W 80 cm x D 55 cm £35,000
The Game of Life
Win - Win, Lose - Lose 2006
This installation, with its board representing noughts and crosses - a game that, like war, no-one can ultimately win - comments on society’s drive towards disintegration, and the precarious nature of life. The text on the board reads: In the moment of remembering the millions of innocents slaughtered in the name of religion, ideology or for no other reason than that they were supposedly different from those who killed them, one realises the essential stupidity of war and the infinite value of love. Free blown glass with acrylic base H 12 cm x W 60 cm x D 60 cm £8,500
The Stoneform Revolution
Another breakthrough, which occurred during the nineties, was the creation of my ‘stoneform’ shape. I had previously made shells or pebble forms: flattened rounded shapes that lay on a table or hearth. My epiphany was standing these on end so that they became sculptural forms and with thick clear casing I realised that they were the perfect canvas for a more painterly approach to glassblowing. About this time I began to interpret in glass, works by favourite painters, and Paradiso came from looking at Howard Hodgkin abstracts with their extraordinary intensity of colour. The series Paradiso comes in a number of guises, so many that some versions were never fully explored. It is with this in mind I have returned yet again to this, my favourite and most successful series, to explore its further potential. -Peter Layton
Paradiso Stoneform, 1990s H 28 cm x W 24 cm x D 6 cm Free blown glass £2,900
Paradiso Stoneforms Revisited, 2017 left: H 25 cm x W 23 cm x D 7 cm right: H 19 cm x W 20 cm x D 6 cm Free blown glass left: £1,250 right: £720
Paradiso Stoneform Revisited, 2017 H 32 cm x W 22 cm x D 6 cm Free blown glass £1,400
Paradiso V-form Revisited, 2017 Free blown glass H 30 cm x W 25 cm x D 18 cm £1,100
Paradiso Stoneforms Revisited, 2017 Free blown glass left: H 20 cm x W 17 cm x D 7 cm right: H 32 cm x W 18 cm x D 7 cm left: £1,100 right: £1,600
BERMONDSEY STREET 2009 - present
Created in 2014, for the exhibition Vetro: Exploring the Venetian Influence, Peter’s Burano series has quickly become a modern classic. Named after Burano, an island near Murano, with a history of lacemaking, the series contrasts delicate trails in one layer with a strong coloured central section. A play on traditional glass filigree work (reticello and latticino) Peter has exploited graphic effects and moire patterns within the mass of a virtually solid glass piece.
Burano Revisited, 2017 H 31 cm x W 30 cm x D 7 cm Free blown glass £2,750
Burano Revisited, 2017 H 35 cm x W 25 cm x D 6 cm Free blown glass £2,400
Burano Revisited, 2017 H 37 cm x W 19 cm x D 8 cm Free blown glass £1,850
Burano Revisited, 2017 H 27 cm x W 26 cm x D 7 cm Free blown glass £2,700
Chess Set 2011
Originally commissioned by a private client, this is one of three chess sets by Peter Layton. Each set is totally unique, the pieces are hot sculpted on the blowing iron and the board beautifully crafted by Gavin Rooks in goatskin and vellum.
H 15 cm x W 60 cm x D 60 cm Blown glass chess pieces, wood, goatskin and vellum board ÂŁ8,000
Abacus 2014
Peter enjoyed using Corian as a coloured material to frame his Abacus pieces. Its smooth surface contrasts with the coloured ‘beads’; in this example black and white ‘beads’ move and rotate and can be re-arranged to create new compositions within the green frame. The Abacus pieces combine Peter’s passion for colour with his fascination for enabling the viewer to reconfigure a piece as desired.
H 90 cm x W 70 cm x D 7 cm Glass, metal, Corian £13,500
Murrini 2014
Traditionally Murrini are small cross-sections, containing a pattern or motif, cut from prepared glass cane or rod. When hot, these canes can be drawn and redrawn into lengths of ever thinner diameter. The murrini are arranged as mosaics to be reheated and picked up and encapsulated in paperweights or incorporated into vessels as in for example the millefiore or thousand flower artifacts. My ‘murrini’ pieces have been made by folding and refolding hot coloured elements. Instead of drawing these into canes the resulting forms have been cut, ground and polished in sections to reveal their interior matrix. H 15 cm x W 15 cm x D 3 cm Hot sculpted glass ÂŁ 1,500
This catalogue presents a small selection of pieces by Peter Layton featured in 'Reminiscence'. Please contact Gallery Manager Gena Johns to purchase, request more information about the work, or inquire about a bespoke shipping quote. London Glassblowing regularly ships work across the UK and internationally. London Glassblowing 62-66 Bermondsey Street SE1 3UD londonglassblowing.co.uk gallery@londonglassblowing.co.uk