Editor's Letter
by
Andrew Page
One hundred years ago in Toledo, Ohio, a skilled glassblower and Libbey Glass plant superintendent, Michael Owens, perfected automated bottle-making process. His revolutionary machine forever changed the nature of glass production. As we learn in Quentin R. Scrabec Jr.'s new book (see Book Report on p. 16), what had been a hands-on event following teams of glassblowers became a mass-production process. Almost overnight, the glass bottle became a cheap and standard form of packaging. The industrialization of glass transformed the distribution of food and drink, the American diet, and perhaps most profoundly, our relationship to the glass vessel as an endlessly reproducible commodity.
Hourglass
Pitssiburgh's year of glass; an Ann Wolff retrospective at the Mint; an international plameworking conference broadens its focus in New Jersey; transparency on exhibit in Vermont; PLUS new books on William Morris, Judith Schaechter, James Carpenter and others.
Reviews
Marvin Oliver at Stonington Gallery, Seattle; Michael Glancy at Barry Friendman, Ltd., New York; David Kaplan and Annica Sandstrom at the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; William Morris at the Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington; Australian glass at Sandra Ainsley Gallery, Toronto; Charles Parriot at Heller Gallery, New York; Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Pete Waldman at Sonny's in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
UrbanGlass News
James Capenter to be honorary chair of the 2007 Auction and Glassblowers Ball; Bead Expo 2007 to feature international beadmakers; emerging talent on display at the 2007 MFA exhibit.
Reflection
by
William Warmus
The overheated contemporary art market contrasts sharply with the market for art made from glass.
