Blackcoater

Object NameSculpture

Artist Ivan Mareš (Czech, b. 1956)

Made FromLead Glass

Date1989

TechniqueMold-melted, cut, ground, polished

SizeOverall H: 57.2 cm, W: 102.5 cm, D: 24.5 cm

Accession Number92.3.12

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Exhibitions

Kunst mit Glas: Vladimir Kopecky & Ivan Mare

Title Unknown (Judy Youens Gallery)

Title Unknown (Maurine Littleton Gallery)

Czech Glass Now: Contemporary Sculpture, 1970-2004

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

Looking out the window of his studio one day, Ivan Mareš was impressed by a swarm of black butterflies that looked, he said, as if they were “wearing black evening coats.” The form of the butterflies was the basis for this abstract sculpture. In Blackcoater, the thickest parts of the sculpture are a nearly opaque purple that absorbs light. As the glass becomes thinner toward the edges, the color lightens and becomes transparent, like the water at the edge of a dark pond.

Place Made

Czechoslovakia, Zelezny Brod

Physical DescriptionDeep amethyst lead glass; fused in a mold (mold-melted), cut, ground, polished. Large symmetrical horizontal sculpture cast in "double-diamond" wings shape with central crossed legs; each "diamond" wing front in slight relief and comprised of three planes (one large polished diamond and two unpolished narrow triangles with overall mold marks, large diamonds taper at outside edge); at narrow juncture of "wings" small triangles linked by thin horizontal undulating "skirt" extrusion of glass; back side juncture also has skirt with broken edges, back of each wing left unpolished and sculptured in radiating pattern of shallow, gradually widening, stepped planes; wings rest on the squared points of large diamonds and central pair of narrow crossed solid tubular legs in form of "x" extending from center juncture and angled slightly outward for support.
Provenance

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