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A kaleidoscope of color: Palmer Museum emerging as studio glass art destination

Courtesy photo This work, “Cadmium Drop” by Paul Schwieder, is blown and sandblasted glass. It is on display at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park.

Almost 70 works of studio glass art currently are on display at the Palmer Museum of Art on the main campus of Penn State University.

They represent the museum’s growing collection in that medium and demonstrate that it is becoming “one of the preeminent destinations for studio glass on the East Coast,” said curator Joyce Robinson.

The works in the exhibition, called “A Kaleidoscope of Color,” range from “diminutive vessels to expansive wall pieces, from meticulously detailed objects to more monumental sculptures, from figural to abstraction… and everything in between,” Robinson said. “On display are luminous examples of contemporary studio glass by an international array of artists.”

Other exhibitions currently on display are “Morris Blackburn: Prints and Paintings in Process” and “Eva Watson-Schutze: Pictorialist Portraits.” All three shows run through April 30; the museum will be closed from May 1 through Sept. 4 for maintenance work that will include systems that control the museum’s temperature and relative humidity to protect its works of art, according to Jeremy Warner, security and facility manager.

Robinson said most of the “Kaleidoscope” works have been gifted or promised to the museum, “which, of course, makes us all quite excited,” and buttresses Palmer’s standing among studio glass art collections.

She said Palmer leaders are aware of the growing interest in glass art, which didn’t take off until the late 1950s when the Corning Museum of Glass did the first major exhibition, according to a paper from the Yale University Art Gallery. More than 90 percent of the Corning works on display had been created in a factory setting, prompting individual artists to begin experimenting with the medium, it said.

“We’re excited to be riding the growing wave of interest in studio glass and extremely grateful for the generosity of so many collectors who have designated the Palmer as the final home for their remarkable collections,” Robinson said. “Paramount for them is the awareness that our university audience, residents of the region, and visitors from outside the state will one day make the trek to State College to visit a must-see destination for contemporary glass.”

Glass art is more accessible than other contemporary art forms, she said. And “there is something magical and awe inspiring about glass, both the alchemical miracle of its making and the technical virtuosity required of its fearless practitioners.”

Of the works in the exhibition, Robinson said she is partial to Nick Mount’s “delightfully oversized” piece called “Scent Bottle.”

“His whimsical vessels acknowledge the long history of decorative perfume bottles, from the ancient world to the modern glass industry,” she said of the Australian artist. “Oversized, exuberant and alluring, his ‘Scent Bottles’ are destined never to hold precious liquids.”

Another of Robinson’s favorites is “Column Group” made by Danish artist Tobias Mohl in 2006.

“A student of the famed maestro Lino Tagliapietra, Tobias Mohl merges the artistry of Venetian glassblowing techniques with a modernist Scandinavian sensibility,” Robinson said. “Mohl typically uses a muted palette and highlights an array of organic patterns through the repetition of simple forms.”

Among the works in the “Eva Watson-Schutze: Pictorialist Portraits” exhibition is “William Butler Yeats,” a gold-toned platinum print made in 1904. The artist is best known for her affiliation with the elite group founded by Alfred Stieglitz in 1902 and dedicated to the recognition of photography as a fine art. She also became affiliated with Byrdcliffe, the Woodstock art colony established in 1902 in upstate New York, and the photos in the Palmer exhibition largely represent members of the colony. Characterized by a misty soft focus, her photographs were mainly figure studies and portraits, according to a Palmer press release.

The third exhibit, “Morris Blackburn: Prints and Paintings in Process” reflects the artist’s studies with Arthur Carles, one of the country’s leading proponents of modernism, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It includes, among others, various stages of Blackburn’s work on “Emergence,” including his studies of the work in ink and wax pencil on Japanese paper, an etching and a copper plate.

The Palmer will be hosting a number of lectures, tours and talks on the different exhibitions. Check its calendar of events at www.PalmerMuseum.psu.

edu.

Mirror Staff Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.


If you go

What: “A Kaleidoscope of Color: Studio Glass at the Palmer” and other exhibitions

Where: Palmer Museum of Art on the campus of Penn State University, University Park

When: Through April 30, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Closed Mondays and some holidays

Museum schedule notes: Reduced hours March 4 through March 12 and closed on April 16 and from May 1 to Sept. 4 for maintenance.

Admission: Free

More info: www.PalmerMuseum.psu.edu

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