Cityscape

For Cityscape, Jay Musler (b. 1949) chose a spherical container blown of industrial Pyrex glass, which he cut in half. He then cut the rim of the hemisphere into a jagged edge, sandblasted it, and airbrushed it with oil paint. Cityscape evokes an urban landscape at sunset, the profiles of buildings uniformly darkened by the setting sun glowing red-orange in the distance. Although Musler is best known for his sculpture assembled from pieces of painted flat glass, Cityscape is one of his most widely recognized works. It is an excellent example of how studio glass artists have interpreted traditional domestic glass forms, such as the functional bowl, as sculpture. In an effort to dissociate sculpture in glass from craft, many contemporary artists have avoided using traditional containers. However, in Cityscape, the viewer respects the interior space as nonfunctional. The sculpture’s relatively large size and its combination of decorative techniques reflect new trends in studio glassmaking in the 1980s.