OPENING: The history and future of Danish glass art and design explored in museum exhibit

On Saturday, March 28th, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, will premier “DG15,” a two-part show that covers a 40-year timeline of Danish glass. "Part I" is a historical narrative curated by a former Holmegaard glass factory designer. "Part II," a juried selection, cuts to a contemporary focus of glass as art, expanding on genres and different practices of the material by showing the works of present and emerging artists. A follow-up to two exhibitions at this museum dedicated to contemporary glass art worldwide, one in 1994 (“Danish Glass 94” ) and one in 2004 (“What’s New?...Danish Glass 2004”), "DG15" is a continuing project to document current glass works and compare as well as contrast them with the designs of an earlier era. With over 100 works by 53 glass artists, the exhibition will run through September 27, 2015.

Though not billed as an exhaustive study of the history of Danish glass, the historical exhibition instead traces the development of industrial glass craftsmanship told from the perspective of exhibition curator Torben Jorgensen, who worked for the traditional glass company Holmegaard for more than twenty-five years and was responsible for designing the popular and recognizable lotus-shaped candle holder.

“To me, design needs to have a wide audience," said Jorgensen in a prepared statement. "As an artist, I feel there is great satisfaction in creating good utility items that people are able to use for their own enjoyment and that of others.” 

The contemporary exhibition, in contrast, was chosen by a jury made up of Jutta-Annette Page (curator of decorative arts and glass at the Toledo Museum of Art), Tobias Mohl (glass artist), Stine Bidstrup (glass artist), and Dan Molgaard (Director of Glasmuseet). Each helped to choose pieces they hope will voice new tendencies. 

In the an arena of expression, however, the experimental approach doesn’t necessarily rule out a design aspect, perhaps out of the Danish glass industry embracing new ideas within the factory structure. As a result, several artists have their works in both parts of the show since the line often blurs between industrial craft and freer thinking with glass-as-art.

“Danish glass is often considered to have a certain minimalistic aesthetic,” said museum director Molgaard in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. “A high technical level of skills is seen as essential in the Danish tradition – not only in the tradition of glassmaking but in Danish design in general.” The results, he stated, even in experimental works, are often “cool and elegant.”  

But not always. One might say that a new glass approach was launched in the 1970s, when Finn Lynggaard, the founder of the museum, began his personal study of glass by melting Coca-Cola bottles in a one-man studio, fascinated by how the substance could be shaped. Molgaard thinks that this new approach to glass, which Lynggaard pioneered in Denmark, did not always display the signature Danish "cool."

In some ways, the recent decline of Danish industry has freed up artists to pursue glass in new directions. "Artists are investigating and using the material in another context," Molgaard said. 

"The few remaining Danish glass factories had been struggling to survive, and now all of them have disappeared," Molgaard said. Glass objects have lost their value as a mass-produced product, thereby lessening the stress on functionality. Now, the country is left with "small glass studios mainly focusing on a very small production of arts and crafts and/or people approaching glass from another perspective," he said. "The result is usually fine art."