HOLSTEN GLASS NEWS |
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Publisher: Kenn Holsten
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In This Issue |
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Quote of the Month |
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"The three-way partnership between artist, gallery and collector is of the utmost importance."
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A Word from Kenn Holsten |
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Thanks to all of you who offered feedback on the inaugural issue of HOLSTEN GLASS NEWS. Your comments were very positive and encouraging. I am happy to say that subscriptions have more than doubled over the past month. We have had such a busy summer in Stockbridge that it is mid-July and I am just getting around to writing this second issue. It has been wonderful to see many of you at the SOFA-NY show in early June and here at the gallery this summer. We look forward to spending time with many more of you here in Stockbridge and at SOFA-Chicago in late October, where we will be presenting our fifth consecutive one-person show of Dale Chihuly. In the meantime, we would like to wish all of you a healthy and pleasant summer.
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Artist of the Month: |
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Thomas Patti and his work are an enigma to some, and the illustration of genius for many. Born in Pittsfield in 1943 of Italian immigrant parents, Patti represents the ultimate self-made man and artist. His innate, unerring curiosity, his dedication to truth in art, and his seemingly endless intellectual stamina have helped to create a body of work considered revolutionary in the history of sculptural art glass. He has received prestigious commissions for many large site-specific architectural glass installations, including installations at the Owens Corning World Headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, the Museum of Fine arts in Boston, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the General Electric Headquarters in Pittsfield, Mass., and most recently, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority. To collectors, Patti is probably best known for his smaller works, begun in the 1970's. So innovative was this work that the Metropolitan Museum of New York decided to open their contemporary glass collection by acquiring one of his early sculptures, an experimentation with glass as a study for his architectural theories using an expanded medium. Our interview with Tom Patti takes place in the new conference area of his renovated studio, where clean, uncluttered space and line abound. Panels of colored glass are placed about the room, and some gather the afternoon sunlight into a point of vibrant orange color marking a spot on the wooden floor. "Watch that spot of color", Patti says. "By five o'clock it will move 20 feet across the floor, then ascend to the middle of the wall. I could look at that all day. that's what (art's) about; looking- observing - and perception."
MC: I've heard that you started your experimentation with expanded mediums by melting and trying to inflate plastic straws. How have things changed from there? TP: It started before that. I had an interest in expanding materials using a membrane shape or material that could contain air and with which I could create forms seamlessly and openly. It got more sophisticated as it went along, as do so many things. The main focus of my interest was using air pressure to develop form. MC: How does your training in Industrial Design work with your artistic proclivities? TP: I was fortunate (at the Pratt Institute) because I had interests in both Fine Arts and Industrial Design. Against (then) current taboos, I was allowed to go into the painting department, as I had a lot of skill as a painter at that time. So I took courses in the engineering school, classes in the painting school, even though Industrial Design was my major. I was looking at my education as a creative process, rather than a specific professional discipline. MC: How was glass introduced into your work? TP: I'm interested in architecture; my studies and my work at school were architecturally related to the field of defining and building habitats for people. I had done projects that involved work in South America, and third world countries were interested in my work........ there was the possibility of developing housing for those countries, and using technology combined with methods and principals I had developed. I began to do these things in Pittsfield where I would design architectonic objects and build them on a small scale. They became very, very sculptural because I didn't have a lot of resources. My work became more personal, introverted, and eventually, purely sculptural. This was after working 5, 10, 15 years this way. I had worked with transparent, translucent materials. Most of the work I did was with plastics. At a certain point I was looking for a more durable material and I began to explore glass. It could be transparent or opaque, sometimes in the same conditions or materials. Eventually the work was only in glass. People started to see this work at the same time the glass thing was beginning. In a way though, I think of my work as 3-D painting, of having the color of painting and the forms of sculpture. Most of my efforts are in a form's potential, and color is always an integral concern. MC: Even in the small, layered work we have in the gallery? TP: They're always about color. The more minimal they are, especially the block forms, -those are all about color and form. It's very subtle. As a series it's fairly resolved, but it's the color in those that have evolved over the last ten years. MC: Our "Staff Pick" in this month's newsletter is from the "Compacted Solarized" series. What can you tell us about that series? TP: My work is always a process of evolution, so you can see the relationship between one object and the next; there's a lineage. (With that piece) I lifted it off the base because I was compressing all those planes, looking at it as compressing areas of light.. I thought if I could get the bottom of the object close enough to the surface yet seemingly not touch it, the space would replicate the space in the glass above it. I drew a relationship between glass and void. Once one sees the space, the mind goes back and forth to grasp the relationship; the bottom is absolutely curved to form a balance - a seamless contour. That may be one of the more interesting pieces from that group. It still intrigues me, because at a certain point it becomes opaque, then you see these values of grey and then it compresses the light and color inside and just traps you in that space. The bubble pushing out is a force that in a sense is still moving.......I try to strip it bare, take away, and get to what is essential. You have some of my favorite early works down there now-all those pieces are from my collection -works that I kept. MC: How does your small work relate to your larger architectural work? TP: Originally, my small works were all models: theoretical architectural studies. They were more spontaneous in a way because I didn't have the resources for larger work. I was not encumbered by size and weight - I could manipulate the material, I could express ideas more immediately and empathically. The larger works are more of a layered process, a stretching over the larger frame. I'm just beginning now to have them speak more comfortably, be more fluid. MC: Do you work on a small scale anymore? TP: Yes. My models and sketches are less permanent now. I get to draw more-I'm very connected to the gesture of the pencil (graphite). MC: It's a beautiful tool, isn't it? TP: It's very expressive; it connects ideas and thoughts very spontaneously. This building (the studio) is like that. I move things around- everything's expressive. I like that. Initially - before my work became small - everything was very large. It just got smaller because of my life situation. The space I needed to work large I couldn't afford at the time. My life became compressed, and my work illustrated that. I could have been struggling; doing things the way I had been, building large structures outdoors, but my work would have suffered. I was able to keep my mind and my ideas fresh, I had to make changes. They weren't really conscious, they just happened. Just like this happened...it's not a business plan. MC: You don't have one major project lurking in your mind that you're dying to get to? TP: No, I'm interested in so many things. That would change constantly. There are so many opportunities that I didn't have a year ago. I'm doing a lot of collaboration now - with some of the most brilliant and independent thinkers of our time. MC: With Other artists? TP: With other artists, with clients-in the course of this, so many interesting ideas come up. The dialogue in the large scale work interests me. My work has been so introverted for so long. There is no growth without change. My earlier work was connected to architectural history and theory, with technology. I was fortunate to work with scientists and engineers. The medical field intrigued me.. I had done early research on the artificial heart. MC: How did that happen? TP: Because of a system I had worked on developing architectural spaces and worked with plastics that had application in the medical field - so I explored that for a couple of years. I think the art component is in the "art world". For me, directions and definitions aren't assumed.. In the Modern, my work was in the Architecture and Design Collection in '78. At the Met, it's in the Twentieth Century Decorative Arts Collection. MC: What projects are you working on now? TP: I'm working on a synagogue in New Jersey. And I received a large commission for the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York. There will be a team of people involved in my work now. Because I developed this bomb-blast resistant work that started in the '80s with my commission at GE, the current security climate has brought a sudden interest in my work from another direction. I'm working on three homes. Plus finishing a wall in my own studio. MC: If there were one direction your creative passion was going now, where would that be? TP: What I'm doing at the moment. I don't look t far ahead or anticipate. If I need to define too much what I'm going to do, then there's really no need to do it. MC: How would you like the total value of your life and work summed up? TP: I have no idea- I look at what I've made the day before, reflect on what I've made in the past and how it relates to what's happening now. My work is my resource. I guess (that I've had the) ability to take the risk, to do that and find a life career without fitting into any specific groove.
Tom Patti and his wife and partner Marilyn Holtz Patti have worked together since 1967. Tom holds Bachelor and Masters' degrees in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Marilyn is pursuing an advanced degree in Design from Harvard University. Patti's work is in major private and public collections world-wide. Visit the Tom Patti page on our website to see many beautiful works currently available at the gallery.
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Gallery News |
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>>> On Our Website: We have added many new features to our website. There are now hundreds of images of works currently available in the gallery. >>> At Our Gallery in Stockbridge, MA The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA, has asked us to curate a group glass exhibition for the summer of 2003. Holsten Galleries has just entered into its 25th year in business! The gallery welcomes our new part-time administrative assistant, Mary Brown.
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Calendar |
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July-August: 20TH ANNUAL STOCKBRIDGE GLASS INVITATIONAL — 25 glass artists including Martin Rosol, William Morris, Lisabeth Sterling, Kreg Kallenberger, Steven Weinberg and Dante Marioni. (works by all of these artists are viewable on our website) July: New works by Dale Chihuly. August: Lino Tagliapietra: "Bilbao Series." October 24-27: Dale Chihuly exhibition at SOFA-Chicago Chandeliers, Persian Wall Installations, Ikebanas, Seaforms (please contact us for more details).
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We Are Here to Serve You |
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At Holsten Galleries, we pride ourselves in the personalized service we offer collectors around the world. No matter what your level of expertise, we can provide you with whatever information you need to make informed choices. The best way to work with us is to give us a call during business hours, Eastern Time. Our number in Massachusetts is 413-298-3044. You can also email us at artglass@HolstenGalleries.com or use our handy form, We look forward to working with you.
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