Glass Artists

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The Evolution of Glass Sculptures - From Furlan to Chihuly

There are some artists that come to the art world and nothing is the same ever again. When Murano glass makers Mamaracio Gino Forte and Flavio Poli started playing with solid mass of partially plastic glass and came up with the new glass technique called “massello', Murano glass traditionalists were up in arms.



Everything they were about was in question: the lightness of blown glass, the fragile aspect of three-dimensional glass objects that reflect the light, were completely ignored with 'massello'. But it was Walter Furlan, another Murano glass artist who joined the glass shop of Gino Cenedese after the 2nd World War, who showed the world what can be done with glass sculpted 'a massello'.



His glass sculptures were brilliantly colored and although solid, managed to retain the main quality of glass medium – its ability to reflect light. But it was after he met Pablo Picasso during the Murano Glass Exhibition organized by the Istituto Veneto per il Lavoro that his art truly hit its peak. The colors and forms were showing strong Picasso influence and became instantly copied and imitated by other young glass artists, in Murano and elsewhere.



Another glass artist that got his original training in Murano was American Dale Chihuly, who visited Murano in 1968, on a Fulbright Fellowship, to work at the Venini factory. Besides flawless traditional techniques of Murano glass masters, what most impressed Chihuly was the team approach to blowing glass. This team work became the basis for his work in the Pilchuck Glass School, which he co-founded in 1971 in Washington. This international glass center brought Chihuly to the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art and put him at the forefront of contemporary glass sculpture art.



After thousands of years of glass making into useful, practical forms, albeit often extremely beautiful and artistic, it was only in the 20th century that artists started using glass as a true art form, without the necessity to be useful. Another aspect of glass art that changed in 20th century, particularly thanks to Dale Chihuly is the size of glass objects. Chihuly's sculptures are often gigantic, placed in public places like Kew Gardens in London or at the Las Vegas Bellagio.



Artists like Chihuly made glass art desirable household objects, and inspired thousands of artists to express themselves in glass medium. Glass sculptures vary greatly in price and affordability, depending on artists' fame and standing, but it is now possible to own a glass sculpture in our own homes. It is not necessary any more to travel all the way to Murano to have genuine Murano art, since it is now available all over the world through reputable glass art dealers.



Glass art is also thought in many universities and there is a great chance that we will see even more artists embracing glass as a challenging and intriguing art form. And while many artists still use ancient murano glass making techniques invented hundreds of years ago, art is constantly evolving and new artists are likely to come up with new forms that will shake the art world, just like Furlan and Chihuly did in their time.



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Steve Powell, Glass Artist, Music-like Technique


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