The Washington Glass School

The Washington Post has an interesting review by Blake Gopnik on the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “Tiffany: Color and Light,” a major new survey of the studio’s work, now through August 15.

“(The exhibition) gives a fine overview of Tiffany’s glorious vases, leaded-glass lamps and work in stained glass.
It also lets us in on something strange: Tiffany was not an artist in the traditional sense. The man responsible for some of the most innovative handicrafts ever created barely set his hands on the objects he signed. The man who gave new life to blown glass never blew glass; he didn’t even come up with the iridescent surfaces that were his trademark. The man whose lamps went on to inspire the lighting in restaurant chains across America entrusted their design to a team of uncredited women.
None of this makes Tiffany a less important figure. On the contrary, it makes him a true radical. … His art supplies were other people; the masterpiece he built with them was a corporate entity called Tiffany Studios.”

Click HERE to jump to the full Post article by Blake Gopnik.