Caught in a Flood

Until the 20th century, stained glass was used primarily for windows, usually in religious contexts. The tremendous public interest in stained glass during the early 1900s encouraged designers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany to expand its customary uses. In the late 1960s, a revival of American stained glass was sparked by renewed interest in the Art Nouveau style. Many artists began to experiment with two-dimensional glass. By the 1980s, the making of flat glass panels was no longer tied to architecture or to conventional materials. Judith Schaechter (b. 1961) uses the traditional stained glass techniques of cutting, staining, and layering for her narrative images. Her contemporary and sometimes disturbing subjects reflect events that, through the news media, have become commonplace in our lives, such as domestic violence and natural disasters. Schaechter’s Punk/Gothic style recalls the anxious yet beautiful figures of medieval art, as well as modern German Expressionist painting.