Italians, Americans combine to create glass

“Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America””

Varioius Artists featuring: Dale Chihuly,… “Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America””

Varioius Artists featuring: Dale Chihuly, Josiah McElheny, Lino Tagliapietra

Directed by Richard Linklater

Carnegie Museum of Art

4400 Forbes Ave.

(412) 622-3131

The adroit process of glassblowing shows its creative and often aesthetically pleasing side in a new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art titled “Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America.”

Featuring modern and contemporary glass works, “Viva Vetro!” is a collection of works by more than 60 Italian and American artists. The exhibit is a part of the year-long arts initiative, “Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass.” Throughout 2007, several regional art and cultural organizations are showcasing works in glass in both Pittsburgh and the surrounding area.

With more than 125 objects on display, “Viva Vetro!” is a comprehensive look at the relationship between glassmakers from the two nations.

Since American artist Robert Willson’s visit to Murano in the mid-1950s to learn from the glassblowing factories of Italy, the two countries have developed a hand-in-hand relationship that has fostered the progress of contemporary glassmaking for past 50 years.

Willson’s works, such as “Mirage Myth,” provide an example of the initial interest of American studio artists in the Venetian tradition of skilled glassmaking.

As glassmaking among studio artists in the United States began to flourish, Italian masters would travel to the States to teach the craft and learn from the creativity and independent philosophy adopted by American artists.

It is this relationship that “Viva Vetro!” explores best: The works themselves represent a culmination of both highly skilled craftsmanship and free-form creativity. The tradition of glassmaking in Venice has always been based on a highly structured system of masters and apprentices.

This relationship grew, and the next phase came when several American artists began to work in Venice, especially those commissioned by Vennini, one of the region’s most prominent glass factories.

Works of Dale Chihuly, along with those of other Americans such as Marvin Lipofsky and James Carpenter, were completed in Venetian factories and exemplify the blending of cultures, a union as exquisite as the blending of colors in their artwork.

Chihuly’s early works from his “Venetian Series” and the “Chihuly over Venice” project feature several vases with highly detailed glass angels along the outsides of them, as well as his “Red Spotted Ikebana with Chartreuse Stems” from 1992. Chihuly’s glasswork – which is also being exhibited at the Phipps Conservatory as part of “Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass” – shows a dedication to craftsmanship with an astute attention to color.

Upon returning to the States after studying and working in Italy, Chihuly brought back the tradition of relying on a team of craftsmen in order to produce his works, contrary to the practice of many independent glassmakers working in the United States.

“Viva Vetro!” also dedicates a portion of its exhibit to Italian artists who’ve visited and worked in the United States. Italian artist Lino Tagliapietra’s works consist mostly of vases, but his glassworks take on the quality of abstract sculptures. His 2005 “Dinosaur” is a Technicolor vase with an elongated neck that spirals out like the neck of brachiosaurus.

Along with the collaboration of ideas among artists of the two countries, many pieces themselves are collaborations between Italian and American artists.

In many of these works, an American took the role of the designer, coming up with the look of the piece, while an Italian artisan actually produced the work.

American Ginny Ruffner’s design of a chandelier produced by Vistoli in 1989 dovetails the two traditions quite interestingly: The Venetian chandelier is considered to be one of the most elegant pieces of work the region has produced for centuries, Ruffner’s “Chandelier” consists of neon colors and what appear to be glass fishing lures and dice.

Curator Sarah Nichols achieves a truly alluring, sparkling and overall expansive look at the best glassworks in the past 50 years. She also construes a vivid and continuing history of the art through the relationship between the United States and Italy, giving Pittsburgh a reason to celebrate glass.