BMA : Exhibitions : 2004

LINO TAGLIAPIETRA

"Giving Breath to Form: The Glass of Lino Tagliapietra," an exhibition organized by the Beach Museum of Art, will be on view from 29 October 2004 to 16 January 2005.

Born on the Italian island of Murano, the centuries-old center of Venetian glassmaking, Lino Tagliapietra is among the world's preeminent artists working in glass today. Tagliapietra’s works reveal both his extraordinary technical skill and his deeply personal vision.

According to Susanne Frantz, former curator of 20th-century glass at the Corning Museum of Glass, Tagliapietra’s work represents a "transformation of old elements to new concepts." Frantz states: "Lino Tagliapietra is one of the few glassmakers who can successfully transmit his own sensitivity and intellect into an inanimate object. That is what makes us respond so powerfully to his work and what makes him an artist. His vessels and sculptures, which often incorporate filigree decoration, are on a technical level equal to the finest achievements of historic Venetian glassmaking."

At the age of eleven, Tagliapietra began an apprenticeship in the studio of Archimede Seguso, an internationally known Muranese master. By the age of twenty-one, Tagliapietra achieved the rank of maestro. In the 1960s he began developing his design skills, creating works of his own conception in addition to executing the designs of others. In the mid-1980s Tagliapietra made the transition from traditional Venetian master glassblower to an independent studio artist.

Over the past three decades Tagliapietra has exerted an enormous and profound influence on the studio glassmaking movement, generously sharing his knowledge of traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques with artists all over the world. His generosity of spirit has provided studio glass artists with the to realize ideas for which they were previously unequipped technically.

"Giving Life to Glass" contains recent examples from the artist's most important series, featuring nearly forty individual works and three installations composed of multiple elements. A full-color catalogue with reproductions of works in the exhibition and an essay by James Yood, critic and art historian at Northwestern University, will accompany the exhibition.


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