Michael Taylor is an American studio glass artist, teacher and lecturer. His best known body of work is his geometric glass sculptures. He works the glass cold, shaping, polishing and laminating translucent colored and clear blocks of glass together using epoxy resin.[1]
Michael Estes Taylor was born in Lewisburg, Tennessee and began to draw at age 12. At age 18 he entered Middle Tennessee University in Murfreesboro where he was awarded a B.S. in art education. He entered graduate school in 1967 at East Tennessee University in Johnson City, where he received a summer scholarship to Penland School of Crafts. There he was first exposed to glass as an artist's medium. He returned to Penland in 1968 and, with the encouragement of glass artist Fritz Dreisbach, began to work with glass. Taylor graduated from East Tennessee University in 1969 with an M.A. in sculpture and ceramics. That summer he studied glass at the University of Utah under University of California-Berkeley instructor Marvin Lipofsky. In the fall Taylor returned to Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee, where he was working as a part-time art instructor, to take a full-time teaching position.
In 1970 Taylor attended the Toledo Museum School's Glass Workshop, where he met a number of the artists involved in the Studio Glass Movement, including Dominick Labino, Harvey Littleton, Harvey Leafgreen, Jack Schmidt, Doug Johnson, Tom McGlauchlin and Henry Halem. Returning to Tusculum College, Taylor won a Louis Comfort Tiffany grant to work with Harvey Littleton at Littleton's studio in Verona, Wisconsin. In 1977, while serving as the chair of the art department at Peabody College, Taylor returned to graduate school at East Tennessee State University, where he was awarded an M.F.A. in sculpture.
Teaching
Taylor accepted his first teaching position in 1968 at Tusculum College, where he built a glass facility in 1971. He left Tusculum in 1972 for a job as an associate professor of art at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. In addition to his duties at Peabody, Taylor lectured at Penland and taught during the summer at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and Naples Mills School of Arts and Crafts in Naples, New York. He also found time to begin glass programs at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and Peters Valley Craft Center near Layton, New Jersey.
From 1979–80 Taylor was an associate professor of art at the College of Idaho. During this time he also lectured and presented workshops at California State University at Chico and the University of California campuses at Davis and San Luis Obispo. He taught at Kent State University in Ohio in the summer. In 1981 he was hired by the Rochester Institute of Technology to head its glass program, a position that he held for 19 years. In 1988 he took time out to teach at the Tokyo Glass Art Institute in Japan, and in 1991–Namseoul University. In 2000 he retired from Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2005 he was awarded a professorship at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Facauldade de Ciências e Tecnologia in Lisbon, Portugal.
Glass artists who studied under Michael Taylor include Jiyong Lee, Jonathan Schmuck, and Sam Stark.[2][3][4]
Early work
Taylor began his career as an artist in ceramics. His earliest series, "Analytical Perspectives" of 1965–66, focused on the vessel format. In the "Libidinous Manifest" series of 1969 Taylor sculpted organic ceramic forms that he placed open-end down on wood pedestals to proclaim their alliance with sculpture. In contradiction to the sensual knobs and bulges of his forms, Taylor painted the sculptures with shiny enamel in eye-popping colors. The addition of hard-edged geometric shapes and stripes painted on the forms further challenged the biomorphic forms while the addition of rayon flocking and in, one case ("Libidinous Manifest #10"),a clinging web of red crocheted yarn placed the works firmly in the era of psychedelic imagery.[5]:3–4 Also in 1969, Taylor took his first foray into glassblowing. Early works included the "Glass Fabrication" series, in which Taylor combine blown glass forms with grommets, plate glass and automotive products, such as motor oil and anti-freeze. A trip to Scandinavia in 1974 gave Taylor the opportunity to work at the Johansfors Glasbruk in the province of Småland, Sweden where he developed his "Johansfors" series. There he created sculptures by cutting and assembling clear glass forms manufactured by the factory. Upon his return to his Nashville, Tennessee studio Taylor continued his exploration of cut and assembled clear glass forms in his 1975–76 "N-Sequence" series.[5]:36–40 The artist found that the soda-lime glass that he used to make the forms for this series had impurities in it that caused striations in the glass; these he felt, distracted from the appreciation of the sculptures. In subsequent series of fabricated glass sculptures Taylor created his forms in borosilicate glass, the same substance of which Pyrex laboratory glass is made.[5]:40
Transitional work
At the beginning of the 1980s Taylor's work in glass turned to classic vessel forms based on ancient Greek kraters, lekythoi and amphoras.[5]:45 At first the surfaces of these bulging forms displayed colorful spots and splotches that contrasted with the solid body color of the vessels; but a trip to the desert regions of Idaho and Oregon influenced Taylor to wrap the surfaces of his vessels in landscape-like configurations of color.[5]:50 In 1980 Taylor returned briefly to ceramic, folding and draping slabs of porcelain into twisting, gestural forms. These he airbrushed in black and brown glazes to emphasize the forms' depth.[5]:54
Mature work
In 1982, Taylor moved to Rochester, New York, to head the glass program at Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Fine and Applied Arts. He returned to the symmetry and precision of his machine-like glass constructions, this time finding inspiration in the world of medicine and surgery. His "Surgical Expansion" series, fabricated from factory-manufactured plate glass and glass tubing, featured scalpel-sharp pieces of beveled glass sheathed, and yet perfectly visible, inside transparent glass cylinders. Color began to come into these transparent pieces with the use of tinted industrial glass in peach, solar gray, solar bronze and blue as well as colorless glass. By 1983, he was laminating squares and rectangles of different colors of glass together to create tonal variations within a single work.[5]:63 In the mid-1980s, Taylor was using bright color in small sections to focus the viewer's attention on central or connecting parts in a sculpture's composition. At that time, he used the prefix "photo-" in his titles, as in "Photogenesis," "Photoreceptor" and "Photogenerator", to emphasize the interaction of light with his prismatic creations.[5]:72 Since that time, Taylor's work has increased in compositional complexity. Cast pieces of flawless cast optical glass came into his repertoire in the late 1980s, and these, laminated with thin layers of brilliant color, became the basis of his work after 1991.
Influences
The artist has said that the off-center balance of his sculptures was influenced early on, when he saw the series "Bottled Spirits" by the German glass artist Erwin Eisch. Taylor said that Eisch's series was "about controlled pandemonium," or "tranquil chaos," [5]:224 a spontaneous quality that he tries to apply to his own work. The twentieth century Russian art movement, Constructivism has been a major influence on Taylor's art, not only because "it is deliberately composed" and non-representational, but also because the Constructivist seeks to touch human emotions and intellect through the highly formalized language of graphic art and architecture.[5]:228 Taylor feels a kinship with the minimal artist Dan Flavin because of that artist's professed interest in Russian Constructivism.[5]:230 Artists James Turrell and Robert Irwin also influenced Taylor because of their environmental use of light and light-sensitive materials.
Taylor has expressed admiration for the modern artists Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp and Louise Nevelson as much for the revolutionary effect of their ideas on the course of art history as for the formal and visual qualities of their oeuvres.[5]:235–236
In a general way the structural model of DNA and electronic circuitry bear a visual resemblance to Taylor's constructions in glass. Taylor says that his work represents no one technology, but refers to modern technology as a whole.[5]:231
Awards and grants
In addition to the 1970 Tiffany Foundation grant that allowed him to study with Harvey Littleton, Taylor received a Danforth Foundation grant in 1971, a Thord–Gray Memorial Scholarship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation in 1973, a National Endowment for the Arts (N.E.A.) Fellowship in 1984 and a N.E.A. Forums Grant in 1985. In 1987 Taylor was presented with the New York Governor's Art Award; a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts came in 1987 and a grant from the same institution was awarded in the following year. In 1998 a grant from the Samsung Corporation allowed Taylor to work at the Sung-Jin Glassworks in Kimpo.[6]
Personal
Michael Taylor has been married three times. The first marriage was to Jane Powell, a classmate at Middle Tennessee State University, in 1963.[5]:239 The couple had two sons: Michael Christopher Eric, born in 1966, and Nathaniel Saxon, born in 1970.[5]:239–240 Taylor's second marriage, in 1977, was to Patricia Allred, a political science graduate student at Vanderbilt University.[5]:241 That union produced a daughter, Austyn Hillary, in 1984.[5]:242 In 1992 Taylor married Deborah Haber of Rochester, New York.[5]:243
Taylor underwent successful surgery in 1990 to remove a tumor from the left frontal lobe of his brain.[5]:243
Public collections
Michael Taylor's work in glass is included in the public collections of Carnegie Hall, New York, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia and the National Collection of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Taylor's work can be found in the corporate collections of Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, New York; Coca-Cola, Atlanta, Georgia and Standard Oil, Chicago, Illinois, among others. Internationally his work can be found in the Düsseldorf Museum of Art, Germany; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark and the Tokyo Glass Art Institute in Kawasaki-Shi, Japan.
Related Research Articles
Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist and entrepreneur. He is best known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
Studio glass is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. The glass objects created are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement. Though usage varies, the term is properly restricted to glass made as art in small workshops, typically with the personal involvement of the artist who designed the piece. This is in contrast to art glass, made by craftsmen in factories, and glass art, covering the whole range of glass with artistic interest made throughout history. Both art glass and studio glass originate in the 19th century, and the terms compare with studio pottery and art pottery, but in glass the term "studio glass" is mostly used for work made in the period beginning in the 1960s with a major revival in interest in artistic glassmaking.
American craft is craft work produced by independent studio artists working with traditional craft materials and processes. Examples include wood, glass, clay (ceramics), textiles, and metal (metalworking). Studio craft works tend to either serve or allude to a functional or utilitarian purpose, although they are just as often handled and exhibited in ways similar to visual art objects.
Wendell Castle was an American sculptor and furniture maker and an important figure in late 20th century American craft. He has been referred to as the "father of the art furniture movement" and included in the "Big 4" of modern woodworking with Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, and Sam Maloof.
Harvey Littleton was an American glass artist and educator, one of the founders of the studio glass movement; he is often referred to as the "Father of the Studio Glass Movement". Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glass Works, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s. Expected by his father to enter the field of physics, Littleton instead chose a career in art, gaining recognition first as a ceramist and later as a glassblower and sculptor in glass. In the latter capacity he was very influential, organizing the first glassblowing seminar aimed at the studio artist in 1962, on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. Imbued with the prevailing view at the time that glassblowing could only be done on the factory floor, separated from the designer at his desk, Littleton aimed to put it within the reach of the individual studio artist.
Marvin Bentley Lipofsky was an American glass artist. He was one of the six students that Studio Glass founder Harvey Littleton instructed in a program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall 1962 and spring 1963. He was a central figure in the dissemination of the American Studio Glass Movement, introducing it to California through his tenure as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Albert Paley is an American modernist metal sculptor. Initially starting out as a jeweler, Paley has become one of the most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world. Within each of his works, three foundational elements stay true: the natural environment, the built environment, and the human presence. Paley is the first metal sculptor to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects. He lives and works in Rochester, New York with his wife, Frances.
Vitreography is a fine art printmaking technique that uses a 3⁄8-inch-thick (9.5 mm) float glass matrix instead of the traditional matrices of metal, wood or stone. A print created using the technique is called a vitreograph. Unlike a monotype, in which ink is painted onto a smooth glass plate and transferred to paper to produce a unique work, the vitreograph technique involves fixing the imagery in, or on, the glass plate. This allows the production of an edition of prints.
Robert C. Fritz was an American ceramics and glass artist and professor at San Jose State University in California. As a major player in America’s mid 20th century studio glass movement, Dr. Robert Fritz is remembered for his contributions to the world of art.
Dan Owen Dailey is an American artist and educator, known for his sculpture. With the support of a team of artists and crafts people, he creates sculptures and functional objects in glass and metal. He has taught at many glass programs and is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, where he founded the glass program.
Erwin Eisch was a German artist who worked with glass. He was also a painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Eisch's work in glass, along with that of his friend and colleague Harvey Littleton, embodies the ideas of the international studio glass movement. Eisch is considered a founder of the studio glass movement in Europe.
John Littleton and Kate Vogel are American studio glass artists who have worked collaboratively since 1979. They are considered to be among the third generation of American Studio Glass Movement artists who trace their roots to the work of Harvey Littleton in the 1960s. John Littleton, the youngest child of Harvey Littleton, grew up in the shadow of his father's accomplishments in Madison, Wisconsin, where he experienced first-hand the personalities and events of the early glass movement. Glass, however, was not John Littleton's first medium of choice when it came time for him to select a career. It was only after majoring in photography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that he began to create in glass. He soon formed a collaborative partnership with another art student, Kate Vogel, who had exchanged her study of two dimensional art for glass. The artists' earliest collaborations in glass were the bag forms for which they are well known today. Since 2000 their work has included a series of arms and hands cast in amber-colored glass. Over the years the hands have held various objects, including river stones, large faceted glass "jewels", and colorful cast glass leaves. In recent years Littleton and Vogel have also become known for their series of functional glass and wrought iron side tables.
Richard Ritter is an American studio glass artist who lives in North Carolina.
Fritz Dreisbach is an American studio glass artist and teacher who is recognized as one of the pioneers of the American Studio Glass Movement.
Sam Herman was contemporary glass artist, sculptor and painter. One of Harvey Littleton's first students, Herman is credited as one of the founders of the Studio Glass movement in Great Britain. He was seminal in spreading the idea of the movement through his teaching positions in England,, and Australia and through the exhibition of his own sculpture in glass. Through the years the artist has resided and established his personal studio in London, England (1979–90), South Australia (1974–79). From 1993 to his final years he maintained studios in Spain, London and Gloucestershire. Sam was represented by The Frestonian Gallery (London).
Gary Lee Noffke is an American artist and metalsmith. Known for versatility and originality, he is a blacksmith, coppersmith, silversmith, goldsmith, and toolmaker. He has produced gold and silver hollowware, cutlery, jewelry, and forged steelware. Noffke is noted for his technical versatility, his pioneering research into hot forging, the introduction of new alloys, and his ability to both build on and challenge traditional techniques. He has been called the metalsmith's metalsmith, a pacesetter, and a maverick. He is also an educator who has mentored an entire generation of metalsmiths. He has received numerous awards and honors. He has exhibited internationally, and his work is represented in collections around the world.
Bill Boysen (1936–2020) was an American artist, specializing in the use of glass to produce three-dimensional artworks.
Wendy Maruyama is an artist, furniture maker, and educator from California. She was born in La Junta, Colorado.
Michael Janis is an American artist currently residing in Washington, DC where he is one of the directors of the Washington Glass School. He is known for his work on glass using the exceptionally difficult sgraffito technique on glass.
Michael Sherrill is an American ceramist and sculptor. Primarily self-taught, Sherrill’s early work in the 1970s and 1980s focused on creating functional pieces in clay before turning to sculptural artwork in porcelain and metal in the 1990s. Sherrill lives and works in Bat Cave, North Carolina.
References
↑ "Internationally known glass sculptor is focus of New Memorial Art Gallery Exhibition" (press release), Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY March 16, 2009
↑ Wilson Jacobson, Sebby (16 September 2013). "Night and Day". American Craft Magazine. American Craft Council. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
↑ "vitae". Johnathon Schmuck. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
