Glassworks

Glassworks T H E A RT O F

FREDERICK BIRKHILL

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Glassworks THE ART OF FREDERICK BIRKHILL INTRODUCTION BY

Samantha De Tillio CONTRIBUTIONS BY

Dr. Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk Amy Schwartz Stuart Reid Dr. Doreen Balabanoff PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Henry Leutwyler

THE ARTIST BOOK FOUNDATION NORTH ADAMS

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Artist’s Statement FREDERICK BIRKHILL

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Acknowledgments

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Introduction SAMANTHA DE TILLIO

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A German Perspective on Frederick Birkhill DR. DEDO VON KERSSENBROCK-KROSIGK

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The Art of Frederick Birkhill: One Foot in the Past, One Foot in the Future AMY SCHWARTZ

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Fred Birkhill: Vitreous Venustas STUART REID AND DR. DOREEN BALABANOFF

Plates 61

Vases, Vessels, and Variations

171

Mixed Media

193

Museum Collections

227

Artist’s Private Collection

252

Glassmaking Glossary

253

Chronology

258

Selected Exhibitions

264

Selected Collections

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Honors and Awards

266

Professional Affiliations and Activities

272

Selected Bibliography

276

Publications and Films

276

Photography Credits

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Index

Artist’s Statement

My wife once asked me what are my thoughts and feelings when I am standing in

Frederick Birkhill, 2018.

front of a hot glass furnace, or sitting at a table with a burner in front of me for flameworking glass. What are the thoughts that inspire me? To me, this question is too simplistic.

I do not just start to make an object without some type of preparation.

The ideas and vision that construct my creative process are infinitely varied. They do not come from one source. Often, my ideas have come from my sketchbook. To me, my sketchbook has been a lifeline. There have been days when I have no new ideas. This can be very frightening. It is my sketchbook that has literally saved me more times than I would like to recall.

Always nearby is a piece of paper, or a notebook and a pencil or ink pen. If something comes to mind, either as a vision or idea, I will draw or write it down. Often, I will then transfer that knowledge to my sketchbook. When it is transferred, I mark the date it was drafted, but it could be years before I refer to that sketch or even use it.

My sketchbooks are not fancy. They are tattered and torn. They become rather beat up. There is no tangible organization. They are just bundles of thoughts and design images. Sometimes, I will paste an image from a magazine or newspaper that I found interesting. When I travel, I will often record my experience using time, date, and place as a reference. Once in a while, I will even include a phone number, address, or even a meal I’ve had.

When I want to blow glass, I begin by reviewing the designs that are in my sketchbooks to determine what piece I will make. I’ll then begin to work from the furnace or a flameworked piece using the burner, depending on the medium and technique required.

When I am making a flameworked object, the second step in the process, if I am to blow glass, is to create a pulled point. This entails heating the end of the tubing, attaching a glass rod, heating the tubing again and pulling it to form a point or blowpipe. It always starts with the “point.” Get the point?

Once the point is made, I am ready to blow glass. Let’s say I want a background of a particular color on the tubing, I will heat the tubing and then roll the glass in colored glass powder. This then becomes the base color of the object. At this point, I might start

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Introduction

When Joseph Baldassare approached me to write an introduction for the book he was

producing on the work of Frederick Birkhill, who has spent over 40 years working in glass as a maker, educator, writer, and lecturer, I was glad to oblige. When I spoke with Birkhill, it was clear that this project was a source of excitement, the unveiling of a body of work the artist has kept very close to the vest, now comprehensively presented for the first time. When this invitation arrived, I was deeply engaged in reading Jenni Sorkin’s excellent book, Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community.1 In this study, Sorkin examines the importance of pedagogy within the history of the ceramics community, which led me to think about Birkhill’s importance as an artist and educator in the history of the twentieth-century Studio Glass movement.

Prior to the Studio Glass movement, the majority of studio-based hot-glass work featured the techniques of slumping, fusing, and casting, while glassblowing was relegated to large factories for industrial production. During the nascent years of the movement, Harvey Littleton (with Dominick Labino and Harvey Leafgreen) introduced glassblowing to the studio-craft community through the 1962 Toledo Workshops. The essential teambuilding and swell of experimental energy expressed during this period created the close-knit glass community that exists today.

From these workshops and Littleton’s own teaching at the University of Wisconsin, teacher–student relationships developed and became the cornerstone for the dissemination of knowledge throughout the country. The migration of the Studio Glass movement from the Midwest to the West and East coasts can be traced by following these students as they dispersed across the country and assumed faculty positions in newly founded glass programs. Two of Littleton’s students, Marvin Lipofsky and Dale Chihuly, nurtured glass programs at the University of California–Los Angeles, and the Rhode Island School of Design, respectively. Education was particularly important to the discipline of glass due to its demanding level of technical skills and the necessity of working in glassblowing teams. It is within this tradition that Birkhill also made some of his most important contributions to the field.

Birkhill’s first encounter with the material was at the age of eight when he observed the creation of a glass swan in Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn,

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PLATE 8

The Visitation Series Left to right: Perfume Bottle, 1999. Flameworked glass; bottle: multicolored glass powders (yellow, blue, and red), black glass powder fused on transparent glass abstract root sculptural forms; tigella: black glass powder fused on abstract branch sculptural forms; splash lip; 13½ x 45⁄8 x 45⁄8 in.

(34.3 x 11.7 x 11.7 cm). Collection of the artist.

Perfume Bottle, 1998. Flameworked glass; bottle: multicolored glass powders (yellow, blue, and red), black glass powder fused on transparent glass abstract root sculptural forms; tigella: black glass powder fused on abstract branch sculptural forms; 11¼ x 33⁄8 x 33⁄8 in.

(28.6 x 8.6 x 8.6 cm). Collection of the artist.

Perfume Bottle, 1999. Flameworked glass; bottle: multicolored glass powders (yellow, blue, and red), black glass powder fused on transparent glass abstract root sculptural forms; tigella: black glass powder fused on abstract branch sculptural forms; splash lip; 12½ x 3 x 3 in.

(31.7 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm). Collection of the artist.

Perfume Bottle, 2000. Flameworked glass; bottle: multicolored glass powders (yellow, blue, and red), black glass powder fused on transparent glass abstract root sculptural forms; tigella: black glass powder fused on abstract branch sculptural forms; 15 x 43⁄8 x 43⁄8 in. (38.1 x 11.1 x 11.1 cm).

Collection of the artist.

Perfume Bottle, 1999. Flameworked glass; bottle: multicolored glass powders (yellow, blue, and red), black glass powder fused on transparent glass abstract root sculptural forms; tigella: black glass powder fused on abstract branch sculptural forms; splash lip; 133⁄8 x 45⁄8 x 45⁄8 in.

(34 x 11.7 x 11.7 cm). Collection of the artist.

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PLATE 35

Untitled, 1979. Furnace glass with filigrana technique in orange glass with black glass on transparent glass; 7 x 4 x 4 in. (17.8 x 10.2 x 10.2 cm).

Collection of the artist.

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