Слободкина Ольга
Glass Gallery

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  • © Copyright Слободкина Ольга (olga_slobodkina@mail.ru)
  • Размещен: 07/11/2005, изменен: 16/07/2020. 12k. Статистика.
  • Очерк: Публицистика
  • Аннотация:
    Published in Passport Magazine, September 2005.

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       RUSSIAN ART GLASS DOES NOT LIVE IN A GLASS CASTLE ANY MORE
      
       by Olga Slobodkina-von Bromssen
      
      
       As the human spirit was making its desperate way through the ages it acquired different
       forms of artistic expression - both simple and sophisticated, unpredictable, but altogether logical - in a continuous attempt to achieve a measure of perfection and bridge the gap between man and God.
       Each specific form was part of a historical period with its own demands and whims and the ones that passed the time test have entered the weird and wonderful world of art bringing the quintessence of their epochs in their original incarnations.
       Russian art, in particular, left glimpses of Eternity in clerical (icons) and secular (hand-crafts, for example) forms. Handcrafts in old Russia were diverse and multiple, glass blowing being one of them.
       On the face of it glass seems to be a most fragile material and can't give refuge to Eternity, but when melted down it becomes viscous, starts running and can easily acquire the twists of human imagination, then it congeals and hardens in a work of art - for ever. Many centuries have passed, but the craft of glass blowing has neither tarnished, nor died out, but grew into a new line of thinking becoming art.
       Once upon a time (and not so long ago it was) a woman named Anna Levychkina was wandering about Moscow. She happened to stop at an exhibition displaying art glass from different countries: Italy, France, the United States... Walking about the gallery she wondered, "And where is the Russian art glass?" Russian art glass was not exhibited and it happened that although many contemporary Russian artists do work in this sector there is not a single specialized gallery or a foundation in Russia and glass artists have to look for places to exhibit their work themselves. That is how the idea to create an art glass foundation in Russia came into being.
       From then on Anna Levychkina (now the art director of the LIFE OF THE GLASS GALLERY) and Elena Titova (now the President of the ART GLASS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION) started to work - getting information about contemporary Russian glass and glass artists as well as looking for finance.
       "We wanted to create a structure, which would embrace contemporary Russian artists working with glass," says Anna Levychkina. "We realized that Russian glass artists need help - one must attract attention to their creativity, help them financially, organize exhibitions for them, make publications about them and give scholarships to art glass students."
       The first project of the Foundation was to create a specialized gallery LIFE OF THE GLASS. This unique gallery (and the only one in this country) capitalizing on art glass opened its doors to artists, art critics and art glass lovers on April 20, 2001.
       By the irony of fate, while the broad Russian public is unaware of the works of contemporary Russian glass artists the world's largest museums boast them. It's hard to imagine the number of original art glass works the Russian audience will never see at home anymore for they have become part of private collections in the USA and Western Europe.
       "In the gallery we decided to show our leading artists working with glass," says Levychkina, "artists with names, members of the Russian Academy of Arts - Vladimir Muratov, Lyubov Savelyeva as well as correspondent members of the Academy - Olga Pobedova-Rukavishnikova and Boris Fyodorov. We're attracting artists whose works are in the largest museums of Russia and the world over. For example, the works of Timur Sazhin and Lidiya Fomina are in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. These artists also created a glass winter garden in the Great Kremlin Palace."
       The Priority of the Art Glass Development Foundation is the reveal the miracle of the Russian art glass to the world, to show the huge potential of the Russian art glass and to attract the attention of professionals and art glass lovers as well as those who are interested in the propaganda of Russian art glass both at home and abroad.
       The first exhibition in the Gallery displayed works of over 20 leading masters of Russia representing various stylistic trends. The display included authors' works done recently and demonstrating an enormous range of creative ideas. Well-known art critics - Svetlana Kavetskaya and William Meiland - helped to work out the concept of the display.
       Unlike Western glass artists Russian artists went to a great school - they have always worked at factories creating both mass production series and unique works. Very few Western artists have a chance like that for working at factories is a very costly thing. LIFE OF THE GLASS gallery has tried to show not only various artists, but also various kinds of glass - ordinary glass, optical glass, crystal, technical glass, sheet or flat glass. The type of the glass depends on the oxides added to the glass mass: crystal, for example, becomes crystal when lead is added to it. At first lead was added to the glass mass to make it easier to boil, but then it turned out that with it glass acquires phantasmal qualities - it starts glittering, glimmering and so on. Optical glass uses a very complicated formula, which can also vary. Different types of optical glass are used for laser and space industry, in the optics - for glasses, binoculars and cameras.
       Glass artists use this or that kind of glass depending on their creative priorities.
       "We also tried to show various techniques of glass processing," explains Anna:"guta (glass blowing), fusing (or baking), mollirovaniye (in the West this technique is called " the lost wax": a hollow wax or plaster model is stuffed with glass, when the glass hardens the model is melted or broken), cold processing (that is whatever is done with the optical glass - filing, polishing, which is in fact sculpting). We tried to show all the kinds of glass the artists are using in their various techniques."
       Glass is a bewitching thing. Unlike marble, bronze or stone glass gives the artist enormous opportunities to put his or her creative ideas through. More than that - glass directly depends on the development of production as well as on the technological progress. Therefore every newly- appeared type of glass gives the artists new vistas.
       One of the new technologies displayed in the gallery is blowing glass into metal, into the metal foil, for example. Hot fusing gives the work an archaic mysterious look.
       "Glass reflects the outer world," continues Anna, "engulfs it, plays with it depending on how you approach it, depending on the background, on the time of the day, on the light. Glass interact with you and you fall in love with it very quickly."
       In Russia there is no habit to perceive glass as a work of art. Therefore LIFE OF THE GLASS gallery is a revelation for many people.
       One of the displays in the gallery called THE SYMPHONY OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS, whose topic was optical glass, really revealed a symphony of forms, facets, rainbows and the play of light and shade.
       The display was arranged in such a way so as to give the viewer a chance to meditate on each particular work and evince the maximum aesthetic and spiritual emotions. Black stripes of cloth cut the white walls of the gallery creating a sharp contrast and enclosing some works as if they were sacred. Works of such artists as Natalya Uryadova, Olga Pobedova-Rukavishnikova, Marina Lisitsyna and other great masters of Russian art glass have never been displayed together in such great numbers.
       In Russia optical glass is still associated at the best with spectacles while the rest of the world regards it as one of the most interesting material allowing creating original works of art with amazing effects. Optico-fibre cable does not hide underground anymore, but decorates the gardens of American cottages connecting them with Internet, according to the gallery's press release.
       A whimsical object made of optical glass creating mysterious illusions of depth and purity as well as the play of light does not only decorate the home of a contemporary Japanese, but also helps him to get rid of the stress. Thus art glass has become part of private homes, offices, city streets, recreation places, parks and gardens alongside with museums and galleries.
      
       "At the moment the West is going through an art glass boom," says Anna. "The USA and Italy are dictating the fashion in art glass."
       At the same time the new decor of the Winter Garden in the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow incorporates beautiful glass trees, refined glass details of the interior as well as glass chandeliers, all of which have become part of the design giving the old solemn style a new hue. This glass winter garden was created by well-known artists Timur Sazhin and Lidiya Fomina. THE SYMHPONY OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS offered an opportunity to plunge into a meditation of miraculous depths in the works "Imponderability" now emerging as a particle of outer space with glimmering stars, now as a bowl of light, now as a flower from a different planet. One could see the depth of "Moscow Twilight" with the lights of the windows flashing and going out followed by the coming of the violet and pink sunrise. "The Light Melody", "Behind the Looking-Glass", "Dedicated to Vasarelli", "The Ray Is Invincible", "The Sail", "The Solaris" - mentioning of these names is just a humble effort to put the music of the rays into words, the rays coming from the insides of the magical hand-made crystals. One can watch the mysterious inner life of the light in the transparent colored depths of the works displayed, the life that before has been observed only in precious stones. The Sun - the essence of all the livings things - has given its fire to glass born in the stormy flare and glass has come to life in the skilful hands of the master.
       The new display in the gallery "The Facets of Beauty" is all about women. Each artist showed his own vision of the element of femininity in its various revelations. Glass is varied as the woman's nature. Moreover, they have a lot in common - glass and women: enigmatic, fragile and unpredictable. Glass is an independent sophisticated structure and very often the artist does not know what his final work is going to look like, how the wayward glass is going to behave in his hands. Glass can shine or tarnish depending on the "attention" of light towards it. A work of glass can be monumental and yet remains fragile and vulnerable. Getting into different interior or exterior situations glass becomes cold or warm, may change its color to start a game with the viewer, carrying him or her into its world full of unexpected associations and illusions.
       The new display also includes original graphic works - kimonos on rice paper by Katya Rozhkova and graphical works on flat glass created by Boris Fyodorov.
       During the presentation of the new display Victoria Andrianova was showing her models. Victoria is a well-known dress designer, the winner of two "Golden models" - the main prize of the Week of High Fashion in Moscow.
       Talking about the admirable works of art glass one must also pay tribute to the gallery itself, which presents a high standard of an exhibition place with a good measure of taste and rich simplicity. Small wonder - some of the sponsors backing up LIFE OF THE GLASS are the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Union of Journalists.
       Since the gallery gives shelter to contemporary Russian art glass one can say this kind of art does not live in a glass castle anymore, but under a safe roof.
      
      
      http://www.passportmagazine.ru/article/271
       From the author: you may see the rest of my stories published in Passport magazine at passportmagazine.ru - almost in every issue (sometimes two or three stories in an issue) since Sept.2001 until today. Some of my stories published in The Moscow Times can be seen in google at my name and at Yatedo.

  • © Copyright Слободкина Ольга (olga_slobodkina@mail.ru)
  • Обновлено: 16/07/2020. 12k. Статистика.
  • Очерк: Публицистика

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