: The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is currently presenting
the first exhibition ever to explore a remarkable chapter in the
history of American's premier glassmaker and the Modernist
movement itself. "Glass and Glamour: Steuben's Modern Moment,
1930-1960" will remain on view through April 25
The exhibition marks the centennial of Steuben Glass, founded in
Corning, N.Y., in 1903.
"Glass and Glamour" features almost 200 objects, including more
than 170 rare and iconic crystal pieces from major American and
European museums and private collections, along with original
drawings, books and catalogs from the time of the Great
Depression and World War II, as well as the late 1940s, 1950s and
1960s.
"Glass and Glamour" focuses upon the years when Steuben Glass
dazzled the American public with a futuristic pavilion at the
1939 World's Fair and conducted business in two important
modernist buildings commissioned by its parent company Corning
for Fifth Avenue, including Wallace Harrison's sleek 1959 Corning
Glass Building (then Manhattan's tallest glass-clad skyscraper).
Highlights of "Glass and Glamour" include objects rarely seen by
the public. Among these are functional pieces conceived for
Steuben by celebrated industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague
and included in the landmark 1934 Museum of Modern Art exhibition
"Machine Art," curated by architect Philip Johnson. "Glass and
Glamour" also presents important designs from Steuben's 1939
World's Fair pavilion, including George Thompson's large-scale
blown Galapagos Bowl and John Dreves' Olive Dish. Selections from
"Twenty-seven Artists in Crystal," including engraved works by
Isamu Noguchi, Georgia O'Keeffe, Salvador Dali, Grant Wood, Pavel
Tchelitchew, Paul Manship and others, have been gathered for the
exhibition, as have key examples from such later series as
"British Artists in Crystal," 1954, and "Asian Artists in
Crystal," 1956.
Don Wier's "Star Plates," a 1960 series of 12 celestial engraved
works based upon the zodiac, have been loaned to the exhibition
from a leading private collection. And Steuben designer George
Thompson's monumental "Cascade Wall" - a ten-foot-square
architectural screen of 300 interlocking crystal flowers with
bronze stamen - is enjoying a special New York City homecoming.
The piece was originally created in 1959 as a central feature for
the Steuben store at 717 Fifth Avenue at 56th Street.
"Glass and Glamour" is also presenting an extensive array of
functional pieces - pitchers, vases and urns, punch-bowls,
candlesticks, drinking glasses, smoking accessories, martini
sets, centerpieces, cruets and jam jars, serving dishes and other
signifiers of good living - conceived by Steuben's design staff
between the years of 1930 and 1960. Initially inspired by the
restraint and simplicity of 1930s Swedish glass, these artifacts
illustrate how Steuben designers ultimately created a signature
style characterized by weight and volume, adhering to the same
architectural principles of balance, proportion, profile, and
scale that characterized Manhattan buildings of the era.
Consistent with the Modernist ethos of "truth to materials," many
Steuben Glass objects took on the naturally curvaceous shapes
formed by hot, molten glass.
According to curator Donald Albrecht, "In the versatile hands of
highly skilled designers and artisans, Steuben glass was
fashioned in a range of styles, from streamlined olive dishes to
fanciful colonial revival pitchers, neoclassical centerpieces and
cigarette boxes with Bauhaus purity. Steuben's stylistic variety
was a physical manifestation of the malleability of glass itself,
yet its repertoire was rendered new and modern by the crystalline
clarity of the company's unique glass - a technological
achievement that was invented in the optimistic mood of the
mid-Twentieth Century."
Steuben Glass was founded in upstate New York in 1903 by
iconoclastic English glassmaker Frederick Carder, who served as
the company's director and chief designer for 30 years, producing
more than 80,000 designs and introducing innovations in glass
formulas and aesthetics. The company's modern era began in 1933,
however, when Arthur Amory Houghton, Jr, a 27-year-old Harvard
graduate and member of the family that controlled Corning Glass,
decided to catapult its financially failing Steuben Glass
division into the realm of Modern design.
Steuben Glass still operates today, producing designs by hand in
its studio in upstate New York.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the New York City-based
publishing house Harry N. Abrams, Inc has published Glass and
Glamour: Steuben's Modern Moment, 1930-1960, an overview of
the period in Steuben's history explored by the exhibition. The
96-page book features 70 illustrations and plates, and an
introduction by Donald Albrecht.
The Museum of the City of New York is at 1220 Fifth Avenue.
For information, www.mcny.org, or 212-534-1672, ext 207.
