Lino Tagliapietra | Celebrating 70 Years Working with Glass

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS WORKING WITH GLASS

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CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF WORKING WITH GLASS

the Work of Lino Tagliapietra

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here are few individuals who can claim to have worked seventy years at a single career; we think of farmers, monks, and makers - those whose calling it is to create, heal or be of service began at a very early age. Maestro Lino Tagliapietra has pursued his lifelong profession with the same energy and focus that has marked his career across seven decades, and he continues to inspire those around him.

We are pleased to present a selection of the various series and techniques that Lino has employed - and some he invented - over the span of his creative ventures with glass. Within this exhibition there are many of the series and techniques employed by the Maestro, ancient and contemporary; forms simultaneously classic and modern; colors and graphics that are quiet poetry and some which also shout to be heard and seen. If the Dinosaur, 2015 on page 33 were an instrument in the symphony, it would have to be 25 violins playing Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A minor - so joyous, full of life, graceful and elegant. While looking at Chicago, 2015, the fused glass panel on page 12, think about the city beat sounds of Wynton Marsalis. Go ahead.... listen to Lino’s art! To be able to look at these sculptures and hear symphonic music, jazz or to feel the grounded comfort of a meditative mantra certainly is a testimony to their power and significance.

Like the Fenice, the Phoenix, rising and being reborn from the ashes, Lino has reinvented himself, multiple times over the span of his 70 years working with glass. It is this continual search for the perfect alchemical formula that leads him to through all the stages of transformation both personal and in the work, and which is why he is able to continually discover new potential.

In tribute to Lino’s commitment to education, we have included a very brief description of certain glass terms that relate to some of these works, in the back of the catalog. Take your time to look at the details, the nuance and feel the energy within each form.

Jim Schantz and Kim Saul Schantz Galleries, 2015

Avventurine Dinosaur, 2015 57.5 x 21 x 6.5”

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Fenice, Italian for phoenix, is an acknowledgement of the continual process of creation; a gift from the fire

Fenice, 2015

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20.5 x 14 x 2.5�

Lino Tagliapietra at work on the 2015 Fenice, (opposite) at the Schack Art Center in Everett, WA.

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Preziosa, 2015 11.25 x 12 x 4�

Avventurine is an interesting glass to Lino. It is challenging to work with, so these newest works are the result of the past years investigation on how to use larger quantities of precious material. He has always loved the story about how the avventurine was discovered in Murano when some copper filings inadvertently got into the glass batch, and how many years later, when a similar looking stone was discovered in the desert, it was named after the glass.

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Dinosaur, 2015

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21.5 x 13 x 4.5�

Dinosaur, 2015 32 x 14 x 4.5�

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Forever the explorer, Lino’s passion for learning has driven him to create large scale fused glass panels, using various forms of his own hand pulled cane, murrini, rondelle, glass pellets and blown elements.

Subtle and strong, the fused glass panels are uncompromising paintings with glass and light.

Coral Reef, 2015 Fused glass panel 18.75 x 38.25 x 1.5�

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Chicago, 2015

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Fused glass panel 31.5 x 39.5x .75�

75.5� tall with stand

Nuvola, 2015

Fused glass panel 26.5 x 39.25 x .75�

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Fireworks murrine start with cane made with white duro glass, encased by color, bunched together, warmed, pulled, cooled, then chopped into murrini which are composed into the graphic, picked up on the marver and then, blown and shaped.

This technique allows for a loose, painterly patterning of color.

Dinosaur, 2015 64.75 x 17.5 x 9.5�

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Fuji, 2015

40.75 x 21.75 x 7.5”

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Stromboli, 2015 24.5 x 11.75 x 6.5�

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The Dinosaur series is one of Lino’s recognizable forms.

He continues to expand his interpretation of the Dinosaur, through movement and the graphic, the artist must overcome challenges of the glass to make it dance and move like the gentle water dinosaur he first imagined gracefully swimming in his lovely Venetian lagoon.

Dinosaur, 2006

41 x 18.25 x 8�

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Ostuni, 2013

17.25 x 13.5 x 7.75�

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Fenice, 2011 34.5 x 16 x 4.75�

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Oca, 2013 35.5 x 10 x 7”

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Niomea, 2013 36.5 x 16.25 x 9”

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Clodia, 2015 26.5 x 10.5 x 7.25�

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Bilbao, 2002 32.75 x 14 x 8.5”

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Borneo, 2012 12 x 10.25 x 10.25”

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London, 2015 32.75 x 12.5 x 12.5�

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The furnaces were quiet, and we were to inspect the remaining pieces to see if they survived the cooling process over the past two days. The shattered remains of one gold and green sculpture lay on a shelf as we walked to the closed annealer. For different reasons, not all survive the process, which makes opening the oven a very tense and hopeful moment.

The door opened and we were relieved to see a huge egg shaped sculpture inside, he reached in and gently caressed its side, and at Lino’s invitation, I reached my hand into the annealing oven and touched the warm, smooth glass inside. “It’s like a baby, in the incubator!”, I said, surprised at the reverent feeling of the moment. “Yes, they are all like my children in one way… that is why I cannot have a favorite…”

Africa, 2015 22 x 22 x 12.25”

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Kama, 2015 19.5 x 21 x 21”

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Ombelico del Mondo, 2015 21 x 21 x 10�

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The Ombelico del Mondo, the Navel of the World, exist in various places on our earth, and in ancient times were believed to be the central point from which terrestrial life originated.

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Ombelico del Mondo 2015 21.5 x 21.5 x 7.5�

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Avventurine is a special glass made with flecks of copper. It is very expensive and adds a bit of sparkle to Venetian style work.

Batch is the raw materials that are melted into glass. The process of melting batch is called charging and is quite time-consuming; our furnace requires about 9 hours to cook the batch until it is relatively bubble-free.

Battuto is the word used to describe the multifaceted wheel-engraved surface that resembles beaten metal.

Blank A blank is a small hollow glass cylinder made using a specific color technique. Several blanks can be made from one large bubble, then each blank can be used to make a single piece Blowpipe an iron or steel tube, usually four to five feet long, for blowing glass. Blowpipes have a mouthpiece at one end and are usually fitted at the other end with a metal ring that helps to retain the gather.

Cane refer to long rods of glass, either single or multiple, which are pulled by two people starting with a batch of molten glass that is attached to the end of two rods. These are then cooled and cut into shorter pieces.

Filigrana (Italian, “filigree glass”) The generic name for blown glass made with colorless, white, and sometimes colored cane. The filigrana style originated on the island of Murano in the 16th century.

Fireworks murrini are made by bunching many cane that is colored over white, pulling it into a rod, cutting into murrini and when blown, the effect is like fireworks.

Frit, crushed glass often melted onto other glass to produce patterns and color, used for the solid colored blue area in Chicago, the fused panel on page 10.

Gaffer (altered form of “grandfather”) the master craftsman in charge of a chair, or team, of hotglass workers.

Incalmo, the grafting or joining together, while still hot, of two separately blown glass bubbles.

Typically, one bubble is opened into a cup shape, and then attached to a punty, and the other is opened into a cylinder on the end of the pipe. The cup is then joined on the cylinder Latticino, refers to any glass piece created using colored glass cane.

Latticello is a complicated design where the glass artist uses a “Latticino” to create a “Reticello” like pattern. Although the “Latticino” and the “Reticello” are both classic Italian techniques, The “Latticello” is a modern day twist on classic design.

Lattimo from Italian latte, “milk”) Opaque white glass, usually made opaque by tin oxide or arsenic.

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Marver is a large flat table usually made from stainless steel. The glass piece is rolled across its surface, not only shape the glass, but to remove heat as well. The rapid absorption of heat by the marver creates a stronger skin (surface tension) than the use of a wooden tool. Marver is derived

from the word “marble”, as marble was originally used.

Millefiori, an Italian term (a thousand flowers) describing a style of murrine defined by internal patterns made by layering a number of colors and shaping each with an optic mold while molten.

This style of murrine results in designs which are often flower-like.

Murrine, Italian term for patterns or images made in a glass cane (long rods of glass) that are revealed when cut or chopped in cross-sections.

Optic molds are used to add ribs or indentations to a bubble or solid mass. Optic molds are made from either brass or aluminum and are available in many different configurations. Open-bottom, ribbed molds are typically used for doing cane pickups, close-bottom ribbed molds are used to add either a straight optic pattern or an “optic twist”. Pineapple molds create a unique diamond effect on the bubble, similar to the texture on a pineapple.

Overlay layer of glass that covers a layer of a different color, often as the result of casing or flashing.

Pezzato (Italian, “dappled”) A type of decorated glass developed in 1950-1951 by Fulvio Bianconi (1915-1996) for Venini & C. of Murano. The object is covered with a patchwork of rectangles of different colors, created by placing sections of flattened cane side by side on a metal plate, heating the slices until the glass is soft, and then picking them up on a colorless blob of glass, smoothing them on a marver, and inflating the glass to the desired shape and size.

Pilchuck 96 is one of the techniques which Lino invented and it involves switching the axis of the pipe on the glass.

Reticello involves the merging of two cane bubbles/cups (one inside the other) in which the straight cane were twisted in opposite directions. Once merged, the opposing twisted cane cross each other creating a net like pattern. If done the traditional way, small air bubbles will be trapped in a grid pattern between the crossing cane.

Rod, a rod of glass used as a raw material in forming and fusing glass Silica is silicon dioxide, a mineral that is the main ingredient of glass. The most common form of silica used in glassmaking has always been sand.

Soda is Sodium carbonate or alternatively potash and is commonly used as the alkali ingredient of glass. It serves as a flux to reduce the fusion point of the silica when the batch is melted.

Vetro A Fili (Italian, “glass with threads”) A type of blown glass made with cane that form a pattern of parallel lines.

Zanfirico, a type of polychrome cane made by assembling a bundle of rods of different colors, and heating it until it is soft. The bundle is then attached to two pontils and elongated by pulling in opposite directions. At the same time, the bundle is twisted to produce a spiral pattern. Zanfirico, takes its name from the Venetian dealer Antonio Sanquirico, who, in the 1830s, encouraged the revival on Murano of this and other traditional techniques.

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For over forty-two years, Maestro Lino Tagliapietra worked in various for-profit Murano factories including Vetreria Galliano Ferro, Venini & Co., and finally as the Artistic and Technical Director of Effetre International (1976-1989). Tagliapietra believed that if glassmaking at its highest level was to survive, it must expand beyond the island of Murano. In the summer of 1979, Lino made his first trip to Seattle and on to Pilchuck.

From this point on, glassblowing would undergo a profound transformation. Tagliapietra generously shared what he knew with artists in the United States and subsequently throughout the world. During his more than 30 years of teaching, he has instilled a demand for excellence, a work ethic, and a love of the medium that has changed and elevated the glass art movement forever.

Tagliapietra’s career is defined by a dedication to workmanship, innovation. Lino openly shared his farreaching knowledge of the medium and his skill as one of its finest practitioners, and helped to create a new renaissance in studio glassmaking. Defying criticism from the community back home, Tagliapietra never stopped sharing his knowledge. But the giving was not a one-way street; Tagliapietra benefited equally from the young artists that he taught and with whom he collaborated. After years of factory production work, Tagliapietra came face-to-face with new ways of regarding the material and with individuals who considered it a medium for art. They were blowing glass for the sheer joy and challenge of it. This creative exchange with artists throughout the world expanded Lino’s ideas for what can be accomplished with the medium of glass. We see in Lino‘s art not only the highest level of skill and mastery of material, but a personal quest for new discoveries. At the age of 80, Lino continues to challenge himself by finding the next exciting or sublime form, striving for new forms of expression and creativity. His latest works which we saw him make at the Museum of Glass in February (2015) were some of the most powerful works I have seen in blown glass. I would put these works in the category of the most joyful works of Matisse, or Monet’s Water Lilies, with the power of presence of a Tang Dynasty figurine.

In other words, Lino’s work has a presence which references yet transcends time. We are so fortunate in our lifetime to witness a maestro and artist in one, who through his openness to life and humanity is able to transform silica into miraculous works of art.

Jim Schantz, Excerpt from June 2015 article in American Craft Magazine

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MUSEUMS AND ART INSTITUTIONS CHINA: Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai · DENMARK: Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft · Danish Royal Museum, Copenhagen · FRANCE: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris · GERMANY: Kestner Museum, Hannover · ITALY Aperto Vetro, Venice · Biennale di Venezia · Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Venice · Palazzo Grassi, Venice · JAPAN: Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo · Kitazawa Museum of Arts, Takanecho · Tokyo National Modern Art Museum, Tokyo · Toyama City Institute of Glass, Toyama · MEXICO: Museo del Vidrio, Monterrey · THE NETHERLANDS: Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam · Museum Het Paleis, The Haag · SWITZERLAND: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne · UNITED KINGDOM: Victoria and Albert Museum, London · UNITED STATES: Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA · Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, WI · Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA · Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA · Columbia Museum, Columbia, OH · Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH · Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY · Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH · Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI · Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI · Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA · Hunter Art Museum, Chattanooga, TN · Lino Tagliapietra photo: Robert Peterson The Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA · M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA · Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, New York, NY · Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Chicago, OH · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY · Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC · Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL · Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA · Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY · Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA · Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX · Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA · National Museum of Ceramic Art and Glass, Baltimore, MD · Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL · Orlando Museum, Orlando, FL · Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA · Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI · Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC · Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ · Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA · Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS · Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA · Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH

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Angel Tear, 2015 42 x 23.5 x 7.5”

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Schantz Galleries Contemporary Glass 3 Elm Street Stockbridge Massachusetts www.schantzgalleries.com For information on these or other works by Lino Tagliapietra, contact the gallery at 413-298-3044 contact@schantzgalleries.com

Š 2015 Schantz Galleries, Stockbridge, MA This catalogue was published to coincide with the exhibition, Forever Lino, Celebrating 70 Years Working with Glass June - November 2015 Exhibiting work in Stockbridge MA and at SOFA, Chicago IL Design: Kim Saul - Silver City Design Studio Photography: by Russell Johnson

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Schantz Galleries CONTEMPORARY

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GLASS