Copper the Color of Magic

Object NameSculpture

Maker Diana Hobson (English, b. 1943)

Made FromGlass, enamel, granite, earth, feathers

Date1989

Place MadeEngland, London

TechniquePate de Verre, Assembled

SizeOverall H: 23.7 cm

Accession Number89.2.18

Credit Line4th Rakow Commission, purchased with funds from the Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Endowment Fund

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Not On View

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

Diana Hobson began working in pâte de verre in the 1970s, and her experiments with the technique have helped other artists to employ it in new ways. Her interest in pâte de verre was to be able to make it as thin and transparent as possible. Her vessels are characterized by their diminutive size and careful, almost obsessive, placement and control of color. In this sculpture, Hobson combines her cast glass forms with copper and stone, literally bonding her precious and delicate forms to ancient elements found in nature.

Physical DescriptionColorless, appearing translucent white, wine-red, turquoise, cobalt blue, amethyst glasses, enamel, granite, red earth, feathers, sterling silver, copper bronzing powder; pate de verre (finely ground glass layered into a two-part refractory mold, fused as one piece in an electric kiln), mixed-media assemblage. Mixed-media composition of four parts assembled into two units; egg-shaped granite boulder naturally split into two equal sections sitting side by side (not touching) each linked with a pâte de verre element: "left" half (female), glass section sits on top of boulder via a concealed silver mount, formed of "white" pâte de verre in assymetrial two-lobed vessel, one open seam edged in black and wine-red and ringed with small feathers covered in bronzing powder standing in miniature springs, upper lobe edge and underside has blue and black coloration; "right" (male) half, pâte de verre tear-drop-shaped boat or pod form, heavy end rests on ground, pointed end rests on granite in chiseled groove and is tipped with a single bronze feather just touching the granite, ovoid slit opening edged in turqoise, body composed of broad even bands of glass color in wine-red, cobalt blue, black, and amethyst; unsigned.
Provenance

Former Collection Diana Hobson (English, b. 1943) - 1989