Visiting International Glass Artists

I mentioned recently my acquisition of a piece made in New Zealand by Lino Tagliapietra during a demonstration and workshop visit he made here in 1990. This was one of quite a number of such visits organised by NZ Society of Artists in Glass over the years - I have mentioned those I know of in my article on the beginnings of NZ Glass in the book New Zealand Glass Art published recently by NZSAG.

As well as the Tagliapietra goblet, I have been lucky to acquire two other examples of glass made in New Zealand during these visits.  Richard Marquis was one of the first American glass artists to study glass making in Venice, spending a year on a Fulbright scholarship at the Venini factory on Murano in 1969.  Subsequently, Marquis shared widely the knowledge and skills he had acquired by touring and demonstrating in many countries, including New Zealand in 1981 to coincide with the first NZSAG conference.  During that trip, Auckland Museum was given one of his fabulous teapots by NZSAG.  But Marquis also made a number of pieces in the Devonport Hot Glass workshop of Peter Raos and Peter Viesnik.  An eagle eyed daughter of mine spotted this piece on a stall of glass Peter Viesnik was selling during a studio clear out in 2004, and gave it to me as a much appreciated present. It's not signed, but the attribution is clear, confirmed by Peter Viesnik.

Fred Daden was an English gaffer whom Tony Kuepfer first met on his way to New Zealand in 1973, and then again at a glass conference in London in 1976.  At Tony's invitation, Fred Daden spent a month at Inglewood in 1977.  Tony has described this as being equivalent to the amount of glass making in a year’s diploma course.  He learned a great deal from Daden, technically.  He learned how to make glass move – “a good piece is a fast piece”.

At Tony's suggestion, NZSAG invited Fred to return to demonstrate at the second NZSAG conference held at Inglewood in 1983.  To help fund the trip, Daden made a number of pieces at Inglewood for sale, and this one turned up on TradeMe in 2008.  The vendor thought it was English, having seen the London University tag (Fred lectured at London University) and didn't understand the Inglewood reference - but I did!  I'm delighted to have these tangible links with some of the world's glass greats who have passed on their skills in New Zealand.

Lino Tagliapietra, Italian Glass Master at Sunbeam Glass

Lino Tagliapietra was born in Murano in 1934, and has a long career as a maestro in making glass.  Significantly, through his connection with Dale Chihuhly, he fostered the process of sharing the Muranesi glass making skills, until then closely guarded secrets, with the wider world.  Lino taught at Pilchuck in Washington in 1979, and undertook teaching, classes and demonstrations in many parts of the world.

In 1990 Garry Nash and NZSAG arranged for Lino to give a masterclass at Garry's Sunbeam Glass studio in Ponsonby.  I was thrilled to have an opportunity to visit one of the sessions at Garry's invitation.  Lino made a number of pieces during his time here, and I was delighted recently to be able to add one of those to my collection after it was offered on TradeMe.

This dolphin goblet is a classic example of Venetian glass making, but it is signed Lino Tagliapietra NZ 90.  It's made in clear glass, but the eyes are red murrini with white centres.  It's just under 20 cms high.

 After I bought it, I asked Garry and Peter Viesnik, who was NZSAG President in 1990 what they could tell me about it.  Peter replied: 'this was the one goblet Lino made that I really wanted to buy and Danny Keighley beat me to it by asking Lino if he could buy it before they were put up for sale in Garry's workshop! I was very disappointed.  Was it Danny who sold it?'

It was indeed Danny Keighley, but I confess I was not familiar with the name. You live and learn.  Danny was part of the original Sunbeam Cooperative of John Croucher and James Walker.  He has told me he blew glass for some years from the 'Egg Furnace'.  Danny said: 'John Croucher was probably my best guide initially, and we struggled to 'wrench' shapes from glass when we should perhaps have been more fluid in our approach - but we did some good work.  I took on the role around 1980 of touring the country with boxes of mediocre glass vessels blown by everybody and persuading craft shops to take one or two.  Their interest grew, but was minimal initially.'

Danny has told me more as well, but this blog is supposed to be about Lino.  The remarkable thing about that Sunbeam workshop was that not only was Lino there, but also two American master glass makers who had learned with him at Pilchuck, Dante Marioni and Dick Marquis. I was too new to the world of glass to understand then just how significant this was, but as Garry has said the workshop is still talked about today among glass artists, several of whom were greatly influenced by their exposure to these masters.  I have a dolphin goblet Garry made in 1990 directly as a result of that influence.  Sadly it has come apart, so I can't include a photo, but it's still a treasured piece.

Kathy Shaw-Urlich Stained Glass

While I'm on the subject of architectural glass (a relatively new area of interest for me, though I've loved mediaeval church windows since first seeing Sainte Chapelle in Paris), I should mention a recent acquisition, a small panel by Kiwi/British artist Kathy Shaw-Urlich, who now resides in the small rural Far North settlement of Whatuwhiwhi.  Kathy exhibited this at a small gallery in Awanui in April 2011, and I was delighted to acquire it.

The work is titled Maunga Tapu, or holy mountain. Although she was born and brought up in the UK, Kathy's Maori heritage has always been important  to her. She has whanau links to Whakapara, north of Whangarei, where another of her windows may be seen.  In 1998 her whanau asked her to make a window for behind the altar at St Isaac's Anglican church.

I am delighted that there is a connection between these two windows, since Kathy has told me that the glass she used for the maunga in Maunga Tapu was a piece left over from the maunga that appears under the bird's wing at Whakapara.

New Michel Androu Window for Northland

Auckland glass artist Michel Androu has made a window for the new Mangamuka Clinic of Hokianga Health which opened in April 2011.  The window depicts the mountain Maungataniwha and the Hokainga Harbour.  It bears the inscription 'He ika koriparipa me he tangata toitu', which has the sense of 'a healthy fish can swim against the tide, and a healthy person can overcome anything'.

 

The window is placed to be seen from within the entrance foyer.  The clinic is currently open only on Wednesdays from 9.30 to 2.30, but staff are very welcoming if you want to view  the window during those hours.

James Walker 1948 - 2011

One of the pioneers of glass in New Zealand has died in Wairoa.

James Walker graduated in commerce from the University of Michigan in 1971, then went to travel the world. He first came to New Zealand in 1974 to join his brother on a boat. He worked selling water beds in Auckland, and would go to Australia periodically to renew his tourist visa (he eventually got residency).

James was interested in glass. He saw Dennis Prior selling leadlight lampshades at Cook St market. At John Barleycorn Gallery he saw some of John Croucher's early experiments in glass, made while John and Eric Ineson were working at Claude Neon. James first met John Croucher on the day in January 1976 that John signed the lease on the Sunbeam Glass studio in Jervois Rd, Auckland.

James became a partner in Sunbeam (pictured at right in 2005). Lots of different types of glass were being made by a range of artists. James became increasingly focused on architectural glass, and after the first NZSAG community seminar in Hawkes Bay, where he taught a class in glass etching, James decided to quit Sunbeam and pursue a career in architectural glass. He did well, working a lot with architect Ian Athfield, until things went pear shaped in the 1987 stock market crash.

James participated in the NZSAG run workshops by overseas artists including Ed Carpenter, and also met German artists Ludwig Shaffrath and Johannes Schreiter in Melbourne - he worked as teaching assistant for Schreiter, and both Germans were to be significant influences.

Attendance at Pilchuck in 1989 lead to contacts with Czech artists Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, and from 1992 James lived and worked in the Czech Republic working in a range of media, but especially creating sculptures in cast glass.

James returned to New Zealand in 2004, and settled in Wairoa. In 2007 he was the William Hodges Fellow at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill, where he continued work he had developed in the Czech Republic, including a fascination with the diagonal yellow stripes used as warning symbols in Czechoslovakia. He is pictured at left with 'VenusMaximus'.

Sadly, James developed mesothelioma, attributed to his working with asbestos in his early glass days in Auckland. He died in the Hastings Hospice on April 5th surrounded by family and friends.

I first made contact with James after he returned to New Zealand in 2004, when he visited me and viewed my collection. He was generous with information in a long interview I had with him, and he continued to keep in touch by email, readily answering questions about glass history and offering information. As Grace Cochrane, Evelyn Dunstan and I were working on our texts for New Zealand Glass Art, James was immensely helpful in providing information, comment and corrections.

James Walker will be sadly missed.

Early New Zealand Glass Artists' work to be displayed

This year the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. One of the features of every NZSAG conference these days is an exhibition of members' current work. That will be true again this year, with the added bonus that there will also be included some of the earliest work by the pioneers of studio glass in New Zealand. Artists have been searching their basements to find the earliest examples of their work, but I am delighted to have been asked to lend a few pieces from my own collection. One is the Mel Simpson tall bottle I blogged recently, and another is the 1983 Robert Middlestead stained glass panel I blogged in August 2010. A piece by Libby Gray I blogged in January 2008. Here are some others:

The piece at left is a vase made by Peter Viesnik, signed VIESNIK '80. It was in 1980 that Peter teamed up with the other Peter, Raos, to form the Hot Glass Company that they operated successfully at Devonport until about 1990, when the partners moved on. Much of Peter's (in fact both Peters) early work is not signed, so I was very pleased to come across this in a Whanganui second hand shop in 1995.

I talked about Reg Kempton, New Zealand's first studio glass artist in May 2007, but the piece selected for the NZSAG show is not one I showed then, so here it is. Like all the pieces by Reg that I have seen, this is neither signed nor dated, but it does have the distinctive handwritten paper label that Reg's wife Ellen put on some of his pieces as a marketing tool. Judging from other pieces I have seen my guess is that this was made in the 1970s, though I can't be certain.

And finally, just to get the balance right, here is the piece I am lending by the other Devonport glassie, Peter Raos. This is slightly later, being signed RAOS '83, but it is the earliest signed piece of his I have.

The exhibition should be

well worth seeing, for anyone interested in the history of studio glass in New Zealand, as well as in New Zealand glass artists' current work . It is being held at Essenze Gallery in Parnell Rd, with the opening as part of the NZSAG Conference on Saturday 23 October, and continuing there for public viewing until the following weekend.

A New Old Mel Simpson Bottle

I have been delighted recently to acquire one of the oldest pieces by Mel Simpson that I know. The TradeMe vendor said it had been identified by Cordy's in Newmarket as a being piece by Mel. I was intrigued, since it looked more like a Kuepfer bottle, so I wondered how Cordy's knew. The vendor then said that in fact it was signed on the base. So imagine my delight when it arrived in the mail to discover not only Mel's name but the date '77 there too, in upper and lower case script - Mel Simpson '77.

After completing his BFA at Elam and MFA in Design at Illinois, Mel studied glass at UCLA in 1975, with help from the (then) QEII Arts Council. He then came back to New Zealand to set up the glass studio at Elam. 1977 must have been almost his first year of production in New Zealand.

This tall bottle form was a favourite of Tony Kuepfer's - I have blogged about Tony's bottles previously. The earliest bottles of Tony's I have seen date

from about this same time - Tony signed few of his early pieces, and dated fewer, sadly. The similarity of form makes me wonder if one of them stimulated the other - I know they were in contact about this period. This is the only bottle like this that I have seen of Mel's, while Tony made a couple of hundred, he thinks - I have about thirty five of them. This bottle is 33.5cm high, much larger than the other Mel Simpson piece I have from 1977, shown at right, which is 9cm high, and also signed MEL SIMPSON '77, in the block capitals that form his more usual signature.