Goode Glass FINAL (6-26-23) - Flipbook - Page 7
Introduction
CINDY M. PETERSEN
Executive Director
Stunning! — Breathtaking! — I never knew glass could be this gorgeous!
O
NE OF THE BEST parts of my job as Executive Director of the Taubman Museum
of Art is having the opportunity to hear the words of marvel and appreciative awe
when guests enter a particularly brilliant exhibition — and the exhibition Wonders
of Glass has certainly delivered mightily in terms of such effusive praise.
Some exhibitions, by nature, have a more serene feel, encouraging guests to quietly contemplate
an artist’s offerings. Wonders of Glass is not that type of exhibition. Entering the gallery, guests are
immediately surrounded by brilliant colors, a spectacle of light, and an all-consuming vibrancy.
It’s the same feeling one might get coming out of a dark theater on a sunny spring day, where
everything seems to be more than alive and right with the world.
Making this exhibition even more special is the fact that this is the first show featuring glass
hosted at the Taubman Museum of Art, with this facility offering everything in space and lighting
that could possibly be needed to present these pieces from the Susan S. and David R. Goode
Collection at their very finest. Through a stroke of good luck and timing, this exhibition also
serves as an ideal counterpart to the exhibition The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany, to which the
Goodes were generous enough to loan several additional pieces from their collection that
exemplify some of Tiffany’s hallmark techniques.
A great example is Tiffany’s Millefiori Vase. The word Millefiori means a thousand flowers in Italian,
and is a technique for producing decorative patterns, usually flowers, on glassware. Frequently
associated with Venetian glassware, Millefiori is found in much of Tiffany’s work. The artist is also
known for his heavy use of Favrile®, a technique he developed to create iridescent art glass. An
impressive example of this is found in his Untitled (Flower Form Stem Vase), with its striking blue
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