Goode Glass FINAL (6-26-23) - Flipbook - Page 11
Wonders of Glass
From the Collection of Susan S. and David R. Goode
JUTTA-ANNETTE PAGE
Guest Curator
F
OR MORE than 4,000 years, glass has been a medium of human creativity; however, its
long arc of artistic innovation has largely evolved in manufacturing settings. While beads
and small ornaments such as amulets and elements used in interior furnishings and
decorations continued to be made in small workshops, two distinct industries evolved
to meet consumer demand for ever-diversifying glass goods: glass-making, i.e., the production
of raw glass in the form of ingots and cullet (glass chunks); and glass-working, i.e., the forming of
glass windows, vessels, and decorative objects. Bound by material-specific complexities, glass
production (and trade) was governed for centuries by economic, legal, and political controls that
limited access to suitable raw materials, skilled craftsmen, and their training.
While artists and architects were hired with increased frequency to provide designs in the form
of drawings and models, the execution in molten glass was always entrusted to a factory’s own
artisans. Only in the last century have artists won access to the factory setting — exceptions
at first — and begun working with hot glass themselves rather than directing skilled craftsmen
during the production process to achieve their vision for the intended design. Post-World War II,
a pioneering generation of artists in the United States and Europe demonstrated successfully that
molten glass could be harnessed for artistic expression in a studio setting. Academically trained,
enthusiastically collaborative, and fearlessly creative, these pioneers propelled the fledgling Studio
Glass Movement into the ever-evolving international and diverse community that it is today.
Susan and David Goode embraced this new form of artistic expression in glass decades ago.
When they embarked on their shared journey of collecting in the 1960s as a young couple,
however, their focus was on affordable prints and drawings, often acquired during visits to the
Associated American Artists gallery in New York City. At that time, American studio glass was in
its infancy, and only a few American craft and art-world insiders recognized these early artistic
Opposite page, detail of Toots Zynsky, Appagamento (Fulfillment), 2009, illustrated page 47
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