richard MARQUIS Artist Richard Marquis is a modern-day emperor of glass, working in a studio on Whidbey Island, Washington that is part 16th century kunst und wunderkammen and part retro auto body shop. His encyclopedic collection of ordinary things—from baseball gloves to boat motors, lanterns to license plates, tools to toys—reflects the artist’s interests and becomes inspiration for his work. Stacked in shelves, hanging from the rafters, filling old dishwashers, these discarded ephemera get a new lease on life in Marquis’ kingdom. The philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) reflected on the idea of kunst und wunderkammen in his essay “On Experience,” positing that “…the most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles of nature.” It is no ordinary person who sees the “true light” of ordinary things, still greater a man who can translate this vision for the majority of mortals who need a helping hand. As an insightful thinker, Marquis teems with ideas and notions that he wants to render in glass. As a glass master, he has an impressive repertoire of skills and techniques to achieve this goal. And as an artist, he shares an irreverently smart perspective on the world. In the process, he creates a diverse, clever, and evolving body of work.
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This is no fly-by-night achievement. Richard Marquis studied ceramics and glassblowing at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s but was compelled
to Murano, Italy by a thirst to learn from and work with the world’s glass masters. There, Marquis learned to make the murrine cane for which is so well-known today. He was especially drawn to murrine because of it can be infinitely stretched and cut, offering endless possibility for patterning. His Marquiscarpa (2002) vessels pay homage to the influence of renowned Venetian murrine master Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978). What makes Marquis’ glass work so interesting is that simple forms belie a confluence of ideas and influences. In every work by Marquis, clever and ironic imagery results from studied practice and thoughtful manipulation of both the media and the message. Take for instance his Stars and Stripes Teapot (2002). It is no surprise that Marquis counts a collection of teapots amongst his possessions in his studio-cum-kunsthalle. The ceramicist in Marquis is well-schooled on the classic teapot form but the innovator in him experiments with the anatomy of the shape by allowing it to slump over in the kiln. The murrine master in Marquis creates a quintessential stars-and-stripes pattern, but the Pop Artist in him reimagines this familiar motif in an unfamiliar way, inspiring us to look more closely. Dustpan (2011) is a similarly droll take on the banal in which a housework tool normally associated with grey dinginess and domestic drudgery turns into a brightly striped, cheerful work of art. This work is inspired by one of Marquis’ art heroes, the American sculptor H.C. Westermann (1922-1981), who was known for
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his marquetry technique. Dustpan is made using a glass technique that Marquis developed in the early 2000s with Bullseye Glass called “slab construction,” re-envisioning a traditional ceramic approach in glass while riffing on the layered design in marquetry carpentry. Slab construction is also used in the Razzle Dazzle boats (2008 and 2012), recalling the razzle dazzle camouflage used by British and U.S. warships in World Wars I and II. Bold geometric, intersecting patterns made the boats easy to spot on the water, but confounded enemy torpedoes by blurring the size and class of the ship, and making it impossible to accurately gauge its distance and speed. In 2000-18, Silhouette Sample Box (2000), thirty different species of animal cane adorn a faux magazine, demonstrating the boundlessness of cane-making in the cheeky masquerade of a National Geographic cover, normally an arbiter of scientific truthfulness and the trustworthy examination of the natural world. If National Geographic had existed in the 16th century, the emperors who amassed their kunst und wunderkammen would probably have subscribed. But unlike those egoistic men, Marquis’ collects objects, absorbs knowledge, and studies the fascinating eccentricities of the world not to prove his worth to his subjects but simply because it is interesting to him. We are the lucky beneficiary of his richly textured life and imagination, when we get the chance to enter his domain and behold his body of glasswork.
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Mr. Peanut on Red Blue Orange #6 2012 Blown glass, granulare-murrine technique, found object 13 x 6 x 6�
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Razzle Dazzle Boat, 08-2 2008 Fused and wheel carved glass, slab techinique 5.375 x 19 x 5.5�
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Razzle Dazzle Boat, 12-3 2012 Fused and wheel carved glass, slab techinique 5 x 19 x 5.5�
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Granulare Bottle Form with Silhouettes #2 2013 Blown glass, granulare technique with applied murrine and found objects 19.5 x 8.25 x 8.25�
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Granulare Bottle Form with Silhouettes #4 2013 Blown glass, granulare technique with applied murrine 17.75 x 6.5 x 6.5�
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Lustre Bird on Multi-Color Granulare #5 2012 Blown glass, granulare-murrine technique, found object 9.25 x 5 x 5�
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Marquiscarpa 2002 Fused, slumped, blown, and wheel carved glass, murrine technique 9.25 x 6.75 x 6.5�
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Teapot Cartoon Car 09-3 2009 Blown glass, granulare technique, wood 9.75 x 15 x 6�
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Marquiscarpa 2002 Fused, slumped, blown, and wheel carved glass, murrine technique 10.25 x 7.5 x 7.5�
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Teapot Cartoon Car 10-2 2010 Blown glass, granulare technique, wood, brass 10.5 x 13.5 x 8.5�
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Teapot Cartoon Car 13-7 2013 Blown glass, granulare technique, wood 9 x 12.75 x 7.75�
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Dust Pan 2011 Glass, hot slab construction 15 x 11 x 3�
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biography Born September 17, 1945 in Bumblebee, Arizona, USA
Education 1972 1969
M.A. University of California, Berkeley B.A. University of California, Berkeley
Selected awards and honors Neddy Artist Fellowship: 2010 The Behnke Fellowship, Seattle, WA James Renwick Alliance Masters of the Medium Award: 2009 Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC Lifetime Achievement Award: 2006 Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass Lifetime Achievement Award: 2005 Glass Art Society Libensky Award: 2005 Pilchuck Glass School and Artist Series Meritage, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville, WA Outstanding Achievement in Glass: 2000 Urban Glass, New York Selected Distinguished Alumnus: 2000 College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Crafts Council: 1995 New York National Endowment for the Arts Grant: 1990, 1981, 1978, 1974 Fulbright-Hayes Grant (Senior): 1988, 1982 New Zealand Research Grant: 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979 U.C.L.A Australian Crafts Council Grant: 1976, 1975, 1974 Fulbright Grant: 1976 Venice, Italy (Venini & Co.) President’s Fellowship: 1967 U.C. Berkeley
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Eisner Prize for Design: 1966 U.C. Berkeley National Merit Scholarship: 1963
Selected collections United States: American Glass Museum, Millville, NJ; Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, NY; Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Johnson Wax Collection, Racine, WI; Lannan Foundation Museum, 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; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY; National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Wash. D.C.; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Prescott Collection of Pilchuck Glass at U.S. Bank Centre, Seattle, WA; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; 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; The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Australia: Australian Council for the Arts, Sydney; Australian National Gallery, Canberra; City Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceton; Tasmanian Art Museum, Hobart, Tasmania Canada: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Denmark: Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft England: Victoria and Albert Museum, London Finland: Finnish National Glass Museum, Riihimaki Germany: Kunstmuseum, im Ehrenhof, DĂźsseldorf; Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, Holland: National Glasmuseum, Leerdam Japan: New Glass Museum, Tsukuba; Koganezaki Glass Museum, Shizuoka; Sea of Japan Collection, World Modern Glass Arts Museum, Hiroshima New Zealand: Dowse Art Museum, Wellington; Museum of Art, Auckland; National Art Museum, Auckland Switzerland: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne
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Stars & Stripes Teapot 1997 Blown glass, murrine and a canne technique 6 x 6 x 5.5”
© 2014 Schantz Galleries Publications Photography: Dick Marquis, Jim Schantz Essay: Jeanne Koles Design: Studio Two 3 Elm Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262 413-298-3044 schantzgalleries.com
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