Considerations - the art of Richard Jolley

Considerations

the art of Richard Jolley

Considerations the art of Richard Jolley

June 2014 Schantz Galleries

Stockbridge Massachusetts

Inside Front Cover:

Amethyst Satin Dove with Satin Globe, 2013

Inside Front Cover:

Amber Satin Dove on Teal Satin Globe, 2013

28.5 x 11 x 11" 35 x 11 x 11�

RICHARD JOLLEY Richard Jolley has great appreciation for the hand techniques used for making glass objects that traces back to the Romans, but says “there are technical accomplishments I use to create my sculptures that though related to this long tradition of glassmaking, are in a world apart. I was at the Corning Museum in New York recently and when I spoke with a fine glassblower, well his eyes rolled into the back of his head when I started talking about things like ‘additive sculptural techniques.’”

When Jolley began working with glass in the early 1970’s he knew he had discovered his muse. “There is a seduction with glass. It is such a beautiful material. I was trying to use non-traditional materials for art much like Jackson Pollack was using industrial painting techniques and developments were happening in plastics. It’s not a stretch to say sculpting glass is as non-traditional as any of these media.”

Suspended in Dreams #1 20 x 15 x 9.5"

Though Jolley’s works, which include glass sculptures, lithographs, and mixed media, are both figurative and abstract, he sees little need to make the distinction. “Growing up I was exposed to more figurative art than abstract art.

But in later years when I traveled to the Dordogne in France and saw the cave paintings, I realized that in ancient times there was little difference between the figurative Ibis on the wall and abstract markings-- they were done by the same artist. Most artists do not want to be limited to one niche.”

Jolleys’ sculptures are classically contemporary, such as Still Life #9, which incorporates a tall floral filled vase with a portrait bust of a woman wearing a floral wreath on her head, set in front of a contemporary tiled backdrop. Other works, such as those in the “Totem Series,” are large scale sculptures of stacked forms including human heads, birds, and sculptural elements that form totemic statements on the human condition.

Jolley starts from scratch to create his glass sculptures. He mixes a granular formula of two-thirds sand and one-third “flux and stabilizers” and adds a small percentage of metallic oxides for colors that will not burn out in the furnace. Then Jolley leads a team of three or five assistants/ artists, sometimes for several hours in the intense heat of his studio, through the steps of furnace glass sculpting. “We mix, melt, make, anneal and finish with acid etching,” says Jolley. “The server might set up an arm to get just the right shape, then another person opens the furnace door while a third turns the blowpipe that has the molten glass on it. It is a wellchoreographed process.” Jolley says that his team might tool and reheat a piece 100 times over a few hours to get it right. “The amount of time to tool the glass depends on how thick the glass is. It is a matter of physics -a larger piece means more heat mass.”

Even though he is a skilled master at various techniques for creating glass sculptures, Jolley says he hopes to disguise the techniques used in the finished works. “I want the work to feel free, not labored over. I want it to not reflect the tedium of life.”

CONSIDERATIONS The Art of Richard Jolley

“It seems as though you wake from a dream one day to realize that you have been involved in a journey with a material and process for over half your life and still…. There is so much more to discover, uncover, and to be covered-up by.” ~ Richard Jolley

Though Richard Jolley’s journey in glass has been a personal one, it has also had a global influence as along the way he has established himself as one of the most important American artists working in glass today. Projects such as Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity at the Knoxville Museum are a major part of this journey and show how carefully Jolley considers every aspect—both in the narrative and physicality —of his work.

Jolley lives and works in Knoxville with his wife, the artist Tommie Rush. This connection to his home town is evident in his work, which aims to evoke first and foremost a sense of place, but also the emergence of youth, how we find our way and develop a personality, and then how at some point in adulthood we search for a more mystical explanation of who we are and where we came from.

Jolley is extremely well-traveled and educated on many global issues and art historical precedents, all of which inform his work equally. Even during the consuming process of developing the world’s largest glass mural, Jolley still found the opportunity to travel and experiment. In 2011, at a residency in Murano, Italy, he sculpted the Eternal Observer and Equilibrium, works which are heavier and more sculptural than his blown and pressed glass pieces. This density of glass in this body of Jolley’s figural works adds solemnity, and the technique is reminiscent of ceramic art.

The journey of life must inevitably include death, and the reclining heads in the Suspended Dream series might represent mortality, or, at the very least, a deep unconscious waiting to take wing. Birds recur in Jolley’s work, like messengers of our deep-seated desire to escape our earthly bounds, take flight, and find peace.

All seriousness aside, many of the sculptures are pure joy with a light heartedness that makes one smile... art that is meant to be lived with, and remind us of beauty. Jolley’s blown glass figures have a whimsical quality, and combine the color, draftsmanship and zest for life of Henri Matisse with the energy and simplification of forms reminiscent of early African and Egyptian sculpture; art forms that did not strive for naturalism and are universally symbolic.

We are extremely honored to represent Richard Jolley and exhibit this body of work in our gallery.

Jim Schantz and Kim Saul June 2014

Still Life #9, 2014 48.5 x 20.5 x 11"

“He’s coming from the world of glass but he’s more grounded in contemporary art and sculpture. He’s always had a really strong vision and done things his own way. He has a defined artistic vocabulary, his own iconography—the man and the woman, the everyman and everywoman. The human experience is very much what his work is about.”

Tina Oldknow Curator at the Corning Museum of Glass

Still Life #10, 2014 46.5 x 38 x 10"

Suspended in Dreans #19, 2014 23 x 10 x 10�

Red Yellow Fade Dove Crystal Leaves Blush Thistle Amber Base, 2014 12 x 12.5 x 6�

Amber Dove Crystal Branches Yellow Thistle, 2013 11.5 x 11.5 x 5.5"

Large Red Dove with Crystal Leaves and Yellow Thistle, 2010 18 x 20 x 8�

“The manner in which Richard Jolley manipulates hot glass is magical.

There is a sense of pure joy in the ease in his doing what he loves. The joy that is in his art slowly becomes part of a viewer’s consciousness. His mythic vision, which lingers in the mind’s eye, is almost visceral, shocking our senses.“ ~ Robert C. Morgan, Editor, World Sculpture News

Red Fade Dove With Amber Branches and Fade Pomegranates, 2014 14 x 35 x 10�

Crystal Doves Black Branches and Crystal Pomegranates, 2012 29 x 40 x 12"

Three Red Fade Dove Amber Branches Blush Pomegranates, 2014 42.5 x 64 x 12"

Sleeping Bust on Silver Plinth, 2012, Venice 15.5 x 15 x 6.5�

Equilibrium #3, 2012, Venice 13 x 6 x 8”

Eternal Observer #2, 2012, Venice 17 x 11 x 6”

Constant Consideration #2, 2013 15.5 x 15 x 5"

Richard Jolley installing the framework for the “Universe” at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Recipient of numerous awards and public commissions, Richard Jolley has participated in over 65 solo museum and gallery exhibitions throughout the country as well as Europe and Japan. Richards work can be found in the permanent collections at over 30 museums worldwide, including; International Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark Künstmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany Coburg Museum, Coburg, Germany Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC Atlantic Foundation, Princeton, NJ Baton Rouge Art and Humanities Council, Baton Rouge, LA Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA Carillon Importers Ltd., Teaneck, NJ Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Norfolk, VA Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH Frederick Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles, CA Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY North Carolina State University Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh, NC The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, Louisiana Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Collegeville, PA Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN The Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC University Hospital of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH

Considerations: The Art of Richard Jolley Published June 2014 by Silver City Publications for Schantz Galleries Contemporary Glass Stockbridge Massachusetts 413-298-3044 www.schantzgalleries.com Tina Oldknow, quote from; Life Cycle: Will Richard Jolley’s Seven-Ton Magnum Opus at KMA Finally Bring International Recognition to the Museum and the Artist?

By Matthew Everett Posted April 23, 2014 Robert C. Morgan quote from: A Mythic Saga In Glass And Steel, 2014, World Sculpture News Photos of Richard Jolley by Tommie Rush Artwork photos by Richard Jolley, Kim Saul Back Cover:

Cobalt Dog Chasing Tail, 2005 9 x 9 x 7 l

Winged Floral Bust, 2011 15.5 x 11 x 8�

Schantz Galleries c o n t e m p o r a r y

g l a s s