Glass Art Blog

Daniel Clayman has long been one of my favorite glass sculptors.  When I use the term glass sculptor or glass sculpture, I am not, of course, referring to the classical reductive mode of sculpture used in carving stone, for example. In Clayman’s case, the real sculpting is done in creating the mold to receive the molten glass which then becomes the glass sculpture once the mold is removed.  Daniel Clayman tends to work in large scale and his pieces are both subtle and yet also quite dramatic. Dramatic in their forms, dramatic in their soft colors and dramatic in the sense of having a lot of what I would call “presence.”  Yes, presence is what I feel most when standing in front of one of Daniel Clayman’s works.

"Preinte"

Turquoise Handstand

I am very excited to have added the glass and metal figures of David Bennett after many years of wanting to work together.  Not having done so earlier was based mainly upon not having sufficient space in the Stockbridge gallery to show large scale works.   David is an interesting guy on his third career. His first short career was in the military in the 1960’s. He then became a lawyer with a very successful practice for 25 years or so. At that point he wanted to do something different and ended up doing something really different: he became a glass artist! When I first got to know David’s work he was creating very large blown glass horse heads. I love that series and wish I owned one! David is now doing mainly human figures combining blown glass with metal.  This ancient technique which involves blowing glass into a metal mold is actually 2000 years old but not well known or often employed. Also rather unique to Bennett’s work is the fact that they are lit from within by light emiting dioes (LED’s).  David Bennett’s glass sculpture can be found in numerous major collections, both private and public. Check out his other works on my website!

Tom Patti has long been one of my favorite American artists working in the glass medium. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Holsten Galleries had several major shows of Tom’s celebrated small scale layered and fused glass sculptures.  For the past decade or more Tom has been focusing on very large scale architectural installations in museums, airports, subway stations, synagogues

"Flight Dialogue"

and other public spaces.  I am very pleased to be representing Tom Patti again and welcome inquiries about his commissioned glass installations.

Today we added 17 new works by Maestro Lino Tagliapietra. Some of these pieces, including this beautiful example of Lino’s “Dinosaur” series, are among the best of Lino’s work that I have ever had the pleasure of showing. One might think that at the age of 75 Lino could be slowing down a bit or even resting on his laurels. Such is quite obviously not the case.  Take a look at the AVAILABLE WORKS page on Lino’s page and see if you don’t agree with me on this. Bravo Lino for continuing to push the edge of what is possible in blown glass by bringing into the world of form your wonderful ideas! May you do so for many years to come!

"Dinosaur"

New Year’s greetings! It has been several months since I have posted a blog and one of my new year’s resolutions is to resume doing so. It has been a very eventful period of time for me. On October 2 I sold the “brick and mortar” business to my longtime employee and friend Jim Schantz and his wife, Kim Saul. The gallery continues on much as before under the new name “Schantz Galleries.”

I myself am now an independent art dealer and consultant focusing mainly on growing the website part of my business. www.holstengalleries.com is in its 15th year and has long played a key role in selling glass art. I am now able to “grow” my virtual business in a number of interesting ways. First, I am able to add artists working on a large scale whose works would not have been able to be accomodated in the Stockbridge gallery. Recently I have added the work of David Bennett, Daniel Clayman, Dan Dailey and Mary Van Cline and I am in the process of adding Ginny Ruffner and Tom Patti.

Another part of my online gallery that is expanding is the secondary market page. Here you can see outstanding examples of earlier works by artsts such as Harvey K. Littleton and others.

I wish you all a new year full of good health, peace and abundance and look forward to staying in touch.

We recently received a great “new” piece by Marvin Lipofsky. I use quotation marks because this beautiful sculpture is not newly made, just new to Holsten Galleries.  The piece was actually blown in 1995 and finished in 1996 and I have no idea where Marvin has been hiding it. My guess is that it has not been availalbe previously since it seems much too fine a piece not to have sold earlier otherwise. Many of you know that Marvin was in the first glass masters program taught by Harvey Littleton way back in the 1960’s at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He went on from there to be an art professor at UC-Berkeley and to found the glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Many of the well known glass artists from the West Coast were students of Lipofsky in the 1970’s.  This piece to me has all of the ingredients of a great classic Lipofsky work:  great organic form, sophisticated used of negative space, gorgeous colors.  Thank you, Marvin, for saving this piece for us!

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the gallery yesterday morning was a new Sconce by Dan Dailey. I had been off for a couple of days and was delighted and charmed by this new addition to the gallery. I think that “Vulomina” is a perfect blend of artistry and functionality, of superb imagination and impeccable craftsmanship. It is a pleasure to be representing Dan again after several years’ hiatus. And I have noticed this weekend that collectors coming in are very enthusiastic about the new work.

"Vulamina" by Dan Dailey

Summer has arrived in the Berkshires and the June rains have given way to glorious, sunny weather. We are happy to be greeting many of our regular summer clients as well as making some wonderful new friends in the glass collecting community. Tanglewood is in full swing and I was fortunate to spend last Sunday afternoon under a shady tree on the lawn there listening to the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform Braham’s Violin Concerto. We look forward to seeing more of you this summer when you are in our area. We have lots of great new work by all of our regular artists and have also added several new artists. In fact we just unpacked some great figurative pieces by Dan Dailey. Happy summer to all!

SOFA WEST-SANTA FE ended yesterday. What a great 4 days! We were fortunate to represent 3 of the leading figures in contemporary glass: Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra and William Morris.  It was fun to have Lino and his wife Lina here with us for the weekend. Saturday night there was a great event at the Santa Fe Opera where Lino was the guest of honor. After a sumptuous Italian dinner and Lino’s inspiring talk about glass, music, food, wine and his love of life, four members of the Opera sang arias from La Traviata and The Elixir of Life. It was a perfect New Mexico summer evening and the event was held outdoors under a huge white canopy.  Lino was in rare form and actually sang a few lines of one of his favorite Italian songs.  Since I live in Santa Fe part of the year it was particulary enjoyable for me to bring together two different parts of my life–my life in the Southwest and my gallery in the Northeast.  I look forward to future years of this show and hope many of you will be able to be here in the summer of 2010!