Toledo Museum of Art revives groundbreaking 1962 glass furnace for 2012 artist residency

The state-of-the-art Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion hot shop will host a rebuilt 1962-style furnace during the Toledo Workshop Revisited residency in 2012. photo: floto+warner studio.

It all started with a furnace. Although there are now companies wholly devoted to building energy-efficient furnaces and glass studio equipment, in the 1960s the artists themselves did most of the building of modest stacks of bricks and gas pipe where they could access the wondrous material of molten glass. The development of a small-scale furnace took glass out of the large-factory setting and put it into the hands of individual artists, launching a movement in glass sculpture that is celebrating its 50-year milestone in 2012. Museums around the country are hosting special exhibitions and events, including a unique artist residency at the Toledo Museum of Art.

The first glass workshop was held by Harvey Littleton in a garage at the Toledo Museum of Art in March of 1962, and this date is considered by many to be the birth of studio glass in the United States. This spring, the institution will mark the occasion by offering three selected artists the chance to complete a contemporary project using a similar type of furnace to the one Littleton and Dominick Labino—his co-founder—developed 50 years ago. The original workshop took place in a former garage at the museum that had been converted into a glass studio. As part of the “Toledo Workshop Revisited“ residency, which is being co-sponsored by the museum and The Robert Minkoff Foundation, the rebuilt furnace will be set up in the state-of-the-art Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, where the primitive technology will contrast with the sleek glory holes and kilns that represent how far the movement has come in half a century.

The rebuilding of this historic furnace will be done by the participating residents as a starting point for their project at the museum. The artists will be chosen for their interest in direct experimentation with the material of glass, which is a connection point across the half-century that separates them from the movements early pioneers. Early glass artists often struggled with the technology and materials used to create their art and their struggles came through in their finished pieces.

“What excites me most about this project is the revisiting of the early technological struggles that had great impact on the appearance of the works made at the time, said Jutta-Annette Page, curator of glass and decorative arts at the Toledo Museum of Art. “The young artists chosen to participate in the project all can look back at 50 years of intense development of art in glass, and it will be exciting to see how they approach these early experimental technologies with a fresh view point.”

In the early days of glass, building the furnace yourself was an integral part of the experience, part of the ethos of the times. But the residency organizers are not looking for the artists to remake the early artwork. In fact, those invited to submit were hand-picked for their interest in direct experimentation with the material of glass and the forward-looking approach to making work in the material.

“The candidates were chosen because of the conceptual quality of their work,” says Jeff Mack, studio manager at the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art. “Whether it be performance, installation or object-oriented, the work of the particular people who were chosen reflects an inquisitive, and conceptual nature.”

The basic materials used for building the furnace will be insulating fire brick, standard fire brick, a burner block, a Johnson burner, and some steel elements to hold it all together. Most of the basic materials used to build the furnace can be purchased through specialized manufacturers.

One of the challenges of the process was developing a design that closely resembled the original workshop furnace because there was no drawing from the first workshop that could be found. “The design that emerged was based on drawings from other early workshops, interviews, and old photographs taken at the March 1962 workshop,” said Mack. “The studio furnace began evolving from the moment it was built.”

Some general advancements were made to accommodate melting larger quantities of glass, as the first-generation furnaces were quite small. Many view the first glass workshop as the start of the Studio Glass movement—helping glass to expand its role from purely industrial to artistic material. Fifty years later, the studio glass movement still attracts artists who experience a calling to work with the medium.

“This furnace as an object can stand as a monument to the determination of the early glass artists and to that pioneering spirit which began the American studio glass movement,” said Mack.

The Toledo Museum of Art will host the 2012 Glass Art Society conference in June, and Mack plans to keep the 1962-style furnace on hand to share it with visitors, along with documentation of the March 2012 residency. Visitors to the museum from March 27th – 30th, can view the resident artists at work in the Glass Pavilion. On March 30th from 6:30 – 8 PM, a special public presentation and lecture by participating artists will be open to the public.

—Suzann Caputo

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