Clear Lumina with Azurlite

Object NameSculpture

Artist Tom Patti (American, b. 1943)

Made FromGlass

Date1992

Place MadeUnited States, MA, Pittsfield

Techniqueheat-formed, ground, polished

SizeOverall H: 10.3 cm, W: 15.5 cm, D: 11.3 cm

Accession Number94.4.1

Credit LinePurchased with funds from The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, The Creative Glass Center of America, the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family, and Carl H. Pforzheimer III

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Exhibitions

Thomas Patti: Azurlites 1991-1993

Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012

On ViewBen W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass.

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

A widely respected artist and studio glass pioneer, Patti has devoted much of his career to researching special glasses and hot-forming techniques. He began working with glass during the early years of the Studio Glass movement, but he chose to explore industrial sheet glass as the material for his art rather than glassblowing. Over the last 35 years, Patti has used glass to build and define architectonic spaces that transform surface, light and color, fusing layers of glass with bubbles and other spatial elements into unique works. Although his sculptures are small, the strength of the forcefully compressed layers of glass makes them appear monumental.

Physical DescriptionColorless, transparent pale green, blue and amber, translucent black (appears) glasses; heat-formed, ground, polished. Rectangular form fashioned from 15 layers of colorless to blue transparent over a dark base, with internal air traps in bubble and ring shapes; from inside top layer a small amethyst hemisphere extends down creating effect of floating black disc hovering above rings; tints and thickness of glass layers from top down: thin colorless, thin colorless, thin greenish tint, medium-blue, thin colorless, thick colorless, thin colorless, thick colorless, thin colorless, thick colorless, thin appears black, thick amber, thin blue, thick appears black. Internal sheet layers have circular cut-outs that define and enclose various types of air traps; large internal spherical bubble pushes up from the base passing through a central air trap ring and towards three more stacked rings between veils of minute air traps; all surfaces polished, all surfaces except base are solid; slightly beveled base edges and protective plastic film covering circular opening.
Provenance

Source Carl H. Pforzheimer III - 1994-02-14

Source Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family - 1994-02-14

Source Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass - 1994-02-14