| Art glass usually refers to the modern art glass | | | | flamboyant and prolific artists as Dale Chihuly and |
| movement in which individual artists work alone or | | | | Dante Marioni. Lino Tagliapietraa was the first |
| with colleagues, creating works from molten glass | | | | Murano-trained artist to leave and spread his |
| in relatively small furnaces of a few hundred | | | | knowledge in the United States. |
| pounds of glass. It began in the early 1960s and | | | | Philip Johnson's Glass House may be one of the |
| showed an incremental growth through the end | | | | least functional homes on the planet but on an |
| of the century. The glass objects created are not | | | | architectural scale, it is one of the most beautiful. |
| primarily utilitarian. From a creative perspective, | | | | All the exterior walls are glass, with the |
| they have to make an artistic statement. Their | | | | surrounding vegetation as audience. Johnson did |
| market value depends on the work and the artist | | | | not see the house so much as a stage... but as a |
| involved, and prices range from a few hundred to | | | | statement. The inspiration and basic concept for |
| tens of thousands of dollars. The best known of | | | | Johnson's glass house came from Mies van der |
| the modern glass artists is Dale Chihuly. In 1971, | | | | Rohe, who was designing the glass-and-steel |
| he began the Pilchuck School of Glass near | | | | Farnsworth House during this period. Also |
| Stanwood, Washington, which is a source of a | | | | surrounded by a green landscape, the house |
| great deal of the current American Studio Glass | | | | stands utterly transparent with its glass-enclosed |
| movement. | | | | living space and porch. On a conceptual level, the |
| In an art glass studio, "production work" (goblets, | | | | house is the perfect expression of International |
| vases, pitchers, art marbles etc.) show more hand | | | | Style. Both houses are simple in structure but it is |
| worked variation than was allowed in a pure | | | | the use of glass as the main material, which |
| factory work environment, and each piece shows | | | | makes these houses highly significant in the world |
| some of the lead glass worker's creativity. In | | | | of architecture. |
| addition to smaller production pieces, the studio | | | | Fritography is the art of using crushed glass |
| glass workers also try to turn out larger individual | | | | pieces ("frits") and coloured glass powders to |
| pieces, which might be the equivalent of a work | | | | create fused glass artwork. Artists assemble the |
| of genius in the journeyman system of guild and | | | | frits into patterns that can be highly detailed, and |
| factory work. | | | | even photo-realistic, and then fuse the works in a |
| Glass Blowing might be an ancient art but there | | | | kiln. Seattle artist, Michael Dupille, pioneered the |
| has been a resurgence in the relatively recent | | | | process. This glass artist works in Seattle, |
| "studio glass movement" which began in 1962. | | | | Washington. While he has worked in numerous |
| Harvey Littleton, a ceramics professor, and | | | | media, he is widely regarded as a pioneer in the |
| Dominick Labino, a chemist and engineer, held two | | | | technique of fritography, or kiln-fused glasswork. |
| workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art, during | | | | His public work is on display throughout the United |
| which they began experimenting with melting glass | | | | States, including a major installation in New York |
| in a small furnace and creating blown glass art. | | | | City's Wall Street Park.Through the centuries, |
| Littleton and Labino were the first to make | | | | glass has changed its function and form. A |
| molten glass available to artists working in private | | | | company that has consistently stayed on the |
| studios. This approach to glass blowing blossomed | | | | cutting edge of glassmaking is Pilkington glass. |
| into a worldwide movement, producing such | | | | |