Pettinati-Longinotti

1 Betti Pettinati-Longinotti Advisor, Ben Sloat Group 3, Research Paper II September 19, 2011 Comparative Analysis: Stained Glass Windows of Gerhard Richter and Kiki Smith

Intrigue and infatuation with the medium of flat glass is rare but not new to the investigation of the Post-Modern artist. Marcel Duchamp, Father of Conceptual Art and who is known for his use of the medium for assemblage, marked the territory with his piece in the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Large Glass (e.g. see fig. 1). This piece denotes for my own glasswork the pivotal stance between the inspiration, ethics, aesthetics and the disparity between the fine art and fine craft. The Large Glass is a work I have viewed many times in my professional life as an artist and educator, having interned at the museum in the early 1980s. Post-apprenticeship to my experience in stained glass, this disparity first became full-circle for myself, in an interview I conducted with Harvey Littleton, Father of the Studio Glass Movement. This movement in studio glass was initiated by Littleton and his apostles, first students of Littleton, in the early 1960s. In the early eighties, I was a glass student of Roland Jahn, University of the Arts/ Philadelphia, and forever deemed a granddaughter on the family tree, as Jahn was one of those early apostles in the Studio glass movement. My graduate work (MA in Art Education/Glass) brought me to Professor Emeritus Littleton's North Carolina studio (Spruce Pine) for an interview in the spring of 1982. During this collegiate-archived interview, Littleton prompted a discussion, regarding flat glass exemplars, which naturally arose out of my evolving interest and experience. Within our discussion, he highlights Albinas Elskus and Marcel Duchamp. At the time, Elskus was a contemporary glass painter and wrote the heralded text on the medium and technique, The Art of Painting on Glass. Littleton had

Pettinati-Longinotti 2 critical words about Duchamp and his Large Glass, stating the broken occurrence of the piece happened unnecessarily in result of Duchamp not knowing the technology (Littleton). Thus, this

disparity I find in the medium of (flat) glass between the two great art fathers of the Post-Modern era, between Duchamp and Littleton, causes a personal dilemma referencing these exemplars for my life as an artist. During the transportation of Duchamp's The Large Glass from an exhibition in 1927, the glass panes shattered. Rather than replace the broken glass, Duchamp painstakingly pieced together the glass fragments (Kleiner 706). The lines fanned out as huge cracks, anticipating the direction the subsequent fractures took when the glass was eventually broken by accident. Duchamp's acceptance of the intervention of nature or at least of fate provided opportunity to embrace new conceptual constructs (Masheck 39). Littleton's historically marked and poignant

motto, "Technique is Cheap!" comes to fruition in Duchamps living document of the Large Glass. (Fig. 1) Marcel Duchamp, Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panels 9 feet 1 1/4 inches x 69 1/4 inches, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) 1915-23 Philadelphia Museum of Art
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/65388273@N00/857334242/>

Knowledge of technique seems to be a converging wedge between contemporary art and contemporary craft, and becomes immensely apparent in the recent glassworks of Gerhard Richter and Kiki Smith. I am now ecstatic to have discovered some contemporary references to follow for

Pettinati-Longinotti 3 flat glass, in both Richter and Smith, outside the arena and/or limitations of contemporary craft. Oh, and how sweet it is, the clamor it has created within the stained glass industry. Stained glass with its entrenched history and technique does not embrace change well or quickly. After all, the artisans who presently respect the long held tradition of the lead-came method, tracing back to the 12th century, have still not embraced the newer method of the copper-foil that was invented my Louis Comfort Tiffany over a century ago. Through her lecture to AIB MFA students last semester,

Professor Jan Avigkos challenges us to find our place in entering the 'discourse'(Avigkos). I found myself in the discourse this past summer at the American Glass Guild conference, where the physical presence of Kiki Smith and Gerhard Richter were not to be found. However, through conversation and remarks to presentations, found lively. The points of critical departure regarding Richter and Smith mostly dwell upon their use of the contemporary technique of lamination, within the field of stained glass, which excludes the lead line in its fabrication. In my discussion, I explore a comparison of Richter and Smith and their architectural explorations with the medium of flat glass, most significantly including the use of lamination as a choice for fabrication. The two architectural installations that I would like to compare are the window Gerhard Richter created for the Cologne Cathedral (e.g. see fig. 2) in Germany and Kiki Smith, the window for the renovated East window of the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York (e.g. see fig. 3). For both of the two architectural projects of Kiki Smith and Gerhard Richter, the artists were the principle designers commissioned for these installations. However, neither Smith nor Richter was the fabricators of these architectural works. In the instance of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, Smith worked with Deborah Gans, architect, as co-designer; and the window was fabricated by the Gil Studios in Brooklyn.

Pettinati-Longinotti 4

(Fig.2) Gerhard Richter, 2007, Pixels not Parables, Cologne Cathedral Window, 65 feet x 25 feet.
<http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1147/1334536055_1037d4a999.jpg>

(Fig. 3) Kiki Smith/ Deborah Gans, 2010, Renovated East Window, Eldridge Street Synagogue, 16 Diameter.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/aur2899/5826511427/in/photostream/>

Although I have not been able to find the name of the studio or fabricator of the Richters 65 window in the Cologne Cathedral, it is improbable that he fabricated it without assistance from a

Pettinati-Longinotti 5 professional stained glass studio. On the Cathedrals website, it entails the design and fabrication considerations that Richter undertook (Schock-Werner). It became evident upon closer examination that for design- and concept-related reasons, the means and methods of contemporary stained-glass production would not allow this suggested theme, 20th century Martyrs of the Holocaust, to be developed to the artistic level considered appropriate for the cathedral. Therefore, the Cologne based artist Gerhard Richter was invited to submit a proposal. Richter came up with a design that was strongly reminiscent of his 1970s color charts in that it featured 72 different shades of colored squares. In the new window, each of these squares is made of genuine mouth-blown glass. In order to ensure that the window would blend into the cathedral as a whole, the artist only used colors that featured in the other windows within the cathedral. Moreover, to avoid the effect of colored squares separated by lead came the squares were attached to a pane of plain glass using silicone rubber. This had the added benefit of allowing the window to have the same degree of appreciation both inside and outside the Cathedral. Richter used a specially developed computer program to determine the random arrangement of the colored squares in one-half of the window (Schjeldahl). Richter has caused a clamor within the realm of ecclesiastical tradition, as it relates to the appropriateness of design. His fabrication choice invigorates the ongoing debate within the stained glass industry, regarding the use of lamination as a long lasting method of construction. For the Eldridge Street Synagogue, Smith designed the window to exclude the lead lines, and used silicone for its fabrication. The common sentiment found in the internet commentary is typical of criticism within the stained glass industry: Unfortunately, the frame was mounted backwards which will allow it to leak when the seal starts to break down in 10 years. Trust me it will. The

Pettinati-Longinotti 6 techniques used to attach the colored glass to the solid clear glass were big 30 years ago so there is no earth shaking new technique here. Also it has proven that the adhesive will yellow in a few years depending on how much direct UV ray is gets. Eventually the clear spaces between the glass will soon go black with dirt because the adhesive was not covered to protect it for absorbing the fine particles that are in air and that are black when you are near a road like this window is located. I comment from my 35 years as an Artist that works in glass and has learned from my mistakes. I will withhold my thought on the weakness of the design and glass selections. IMHO (basicallyst).

Although I find the above commentary fairly arrogant and oppositional to contemporary thought, and I even highly disagree with the last statement, I do question the practice of lamination as a fabrication process for architectural work, which is known to last. The problems stated regarding the UV rays and the discoloration of the glass is unknown. At best, this is a very expensive science experiment. New products within the industry abound, and I am quite sure Richter and Smith made the best choices for the silicone material. Actually, I would love to know the exact brands of the silicone product they used. Completely enthralled with Smiths design strength and choice of glass selections, I find beautiful intricacies in the simplicity of thought, attached to Judaic history, cultural tradition and impact upon American immigration of the Jewish people (CBS News). I could not have made better choices for the glass that Smith or Richter chose for these installations, as they are unmistakably Lamberts glass (Bendheim). Lamberts is a company in

Pettinati-Longinotti 7 Germany that is one of the last manufacturers of antique glass. Antique glass, a mouth-blown glass, is not because of its age, but because of the process, by which it is made, which dates back to the Middle Ages. Joyfully, Lamberts antique glass is the common thread I share with these artists, Smith and Richter! The characteristic qualities of mouth-blown antique glass are a major part of my infatuation with glass as medium. In conclusion, I must state I have only partially covered all that I need to discuss in this comparative analysis. In my next paper, I will continue a comparison connected more closely to my own work. I will explore choices I have made for my own current work in glass associated to the work of Gerhard Richter and Kiki Smith.

Pettinati-Longinotti 8 Bibliography Avigkos , Jan. Entering the Discourse. Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. 21 June 2011. Lecture. basicallyst... Commentary to: Video: A New East Window on Eldridge Street. The New York Times. 18 October 2010. Web. 17 September 2011. <http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/video-a-new-east-window-on-eldridgestreet/>. Bendheim, S.A., Featured Project: Eldridge Street Synagogue and Museum by Kiki Smith & Deborah Gans. Bendheim Art Glass: Project Gallery. 2010. Web. 20 September 2011. <http://www.bendheimartglass.com/project.cfm?project_id=152> Kleiner, Fred S. and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, The Western Perspective (12th Edition). New York: Thompson Wadsworth, 2009. Print. Masheck, Joseph - Marcel Duchamp in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, CO:Prentice Hall, 2002. Print. Schjeldahl, Peter. "Many Colored Glass." The New Yorker. 12 May. 2008. Web.10 September 2011. <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2008/05/12/080512craw_artworld_schjelda hl> Schock-Werner, Barbara. On the Genesis of Design. Klner Dom. May 2008. Web.10 September 2011. <http://11000-sterne.koelnerdom.de/index.php?id=19152&L=1>. Spears, Dorothy. Through A Glass, Busily. The New York Times. 26 March 2010. Web.10 September 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/arts/design/28kiki.html> Synagogues Stained Glass Celebrates Festival of Lights. CBS News. 5 December 2010. <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7119795n>. Web. 20 July 2011