Hot off the Presses! New Glass Publications

You may have heard that the museum's main doors are closed for renovation, but the Glass Studio is still open and offering an incredible array of classes, demonstrations and special events. With all of the exciting programming at the studio, the summer promises to be "hot" in more ways than one! Bad pun, I know...


Come visit. Every seat is a good seat, and the TV monitors are great for close-ups of the action.

Part of our job at the library is provide all of the glass artists and students with the most cutting edge information about the contemporary glass word, so we've ordered several glass and craft periodicals and books. In fact, our studio staff are so accomplished they are often featured in these publications. I hope you'll stop by the studio and take a class, or check out thes magazines to learn more about the exciting world of contemporary glass!

Our Newspapers are Literally "Hot" Off the Presses!

Have you ever wondered what happens to the Art Library's old newspapers? You can see them in action at the Chrysler Museum of Art's Glass Studio! About once a month a stack of Virginia Pilots, New York Times and Wall Street Journals are transferred from the library to the glass studio so that the glass blowing artists can use them in their work. Generally, 4-5 newspapers are folded and cut into thick, square layers that fit in the artist's hand. The papers are then soaked with water and used by the artist to shape the glass. Although the water prevents the paper from burning, the immense heat of the molten glass often causes the paper to smoke.

The Chrysler is thrilled to welcome world-renowned glass artists Benjamin Moore, Dante Marioni and Janusz Pozniak to the Glass Studio this week as part of the Chrysler's Visiting Artist Series. Stop by the studio to watch a free demonstration, and see the Library's recycled newspapers in action! Space is limited, so make sure to arrive early:

Friday, March 2 10:00am-1:00pm, 2:00-5:00pm
Saturday, March 3: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Sunday, March 4: 2:00-5:00pm

World-renowned glass artist Janusz Pozniak uses wet newspaper to shape hot glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio.
Copyright Chrysler Museum of Art, all rights reserved.

What's new?

There are many exciting new things happening at the Chrysler, and the library is no exception! Take a look at what the library and museum have been upto :

In order to celebrate the opening of the Chrysler's new Glass Studio, the library has purchased a number of excellent books on the art of glass making. Learn how to make glass beads, figurines, dinnerwear, christmas ornaments, jewelry and more! And make sure to sign up for one of the classes or workshops being held weekly at the studio, or stop by for a free demo!

You may have noticed that two of the Chrylser Museum's new exhibitions feature library materials:

Mark Rothko, No. 5, Untitled, 1949, oil on

canvas. From the Chrysler Museum collection.

© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher

 Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS),

New York.

The exhibition Mark Rothko: Perceptions of Being, which is on view from Sept. 28 to Jan. 8, 2012, is accompanied by one of the library's monographs on Mark Rothko. The exhibition includes the Chrysler’s own No. 5 (Untitled), 1949, that serves as the centerpiece of this focused exhibition of work by the great abstract expressionist. Other works include five paintings on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.—each a gift of the Mark Rothko Foundation. By displaying the library book along with the paintings, viewers are able to learn more about what they are seeing.

You may also have noticed library materials are featured in the new exhibition remix! The exhibition is ambitious undertaking by Amy Brandt, the Museum’s McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “remix examines the distinct ways in which artists from many different backgrounds and generations respond to a common subject, theme or historical phenomenon,” says Brandt. The library was pleased to contribute a copy of Life magazine featuring the pop art exhibition American Supermarket. 

A Life Devoted to Better Glass

Here at the Jean Outland Chrysler Library, we spend a lot of time adding to our vast store of information by filtering newspaper clippings, gallery mailings, etc. into our artist files. Occasionally, we run across a wonderful surprise. While sorting a box of what we thought was artist information to be added to our vertical files, we ran across the history of a company, a career and a passion for better glass.


Edgar Bostock was apprenticed to the window glass trade by his father, Edward Bostock on October 14, 1890 through the offices of the Window Glass Workers Association. He was apprenticed for the designated period of 3 years. The files contain Bostock’s workers’ account book beginning date November 11, 1893, his Glass Workers Association due book – both of which any glass worker would have had – as well as a World Glass Workers Association Delegate pin. Correspondence, photographs and a beautifully-colored trade catalogue from the plate and decorative glass company that Bostock would later found called Bostock, Rhoades & Co., though undated, give us a glimpse of how far Mr. Bostock came in his career.

The files are based on Mr. Bostock’s professional life and also contain letters, chemical formulas, articles and hand-written notes pertaining to the chemistry of glass. Perhaps the jewel in the crown of this find are the writings of Edgar Bostock - handwritten and typed - including professional journal articles, speeches, and the manuscript for a book regarding the history of glass and other glass-related subjects. The articles and manuscripts were found bound with heavy twine and the pages are carefully numbered and revisions are included as if the author were preparing for careful professional editing and publication. Bostock’s chief concern appears to be maximizing the chemical composition and shape of glass for maximum lighting capabilities, though his company also made colored decorative glass, which accounts for the deep chemical interest in tinted glass. The bulk of the materials contained in these files appear to be from the nineteen-teens and twenties, and other than Bostock’s Union paperwork and wage books, there is no account of his early career.

Please keep an eye on our blog for more surprising finds!

- SMR

Out of Storage and Into the Stacks

Are you a glass collector or enthusiast? This Wednesday May 5 at 6 p.m. the Jean Outland Chrysler Library will host Curator of Glass Kelly Conway in the Library Reading Room for a unique opportunity. Join us for Out of Storage and Into the Stacks and view fine pieces from the Chrysler’s glass collection alongside rare books from the Chrysler Library’s extensive glass research collections. Treasures from both collections will be on display and we will discuss how to use the Library’s resources for glass identification and research.


Whether you already have an extensive collection of glass or would like to learn more, this is a great opportunity to learn how to begin your research.

Space is limited to 20 participants and room is still available, so please R.S.V.P. For more information, contact Laura Christiansen at (757) 965-2035 or at lchristiansen@chrysler.org

Recent Inquiries

One of the great things about working in the Library is helping visitors to the museum learn more about items in the Chrysler Museum's collections. When answering questions about items in the galleries for students, scholars, and other curious museum patrons, Library staff members have the unique opportunty of viewing the Museum's collections from new and unique perspectives. Here are just three of the many Chrysler Collection items for which information has been requested this week:

Peach Blow Pitcher in Tankard Shape with Rich Decoration,
ca. 1886-90
Blown glass Enamel
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Location: Glass, Gallery 131.R6.C64
With poem: "On waste and woodland, rock and plain,/Its' humble buds unheed rise;/The Rose has but a summer reign;/The daisy never dies!/James Montgomery".

Use of Rouen
French Book of Hours, ca. 1480
Vellum Tempera Gilt Ink
Loan from the Irene Leache Memorial Collection
Location: The Dalis Foundation Galleries of European Art







Larkin Goldsmith Mead American (1835-1910)
The Battle Story (The Returned Soldier)

modeled ca. 1863-65, carved 1865-66

Marble

Gift of James H. Ricau and Museum Purchase

Location: Ricau Gallery

For more information about these items, or about any other items in the Museum collection take a look at the Chrysler Museum's Collection Online, or, stop by the Library - we're here to help.

Like Sands Through the Hour Glass...

In the heat of the summer, people all across the country are dreaming of vacations; car trips, cook-outs, crashing waves and, of course, long days spent on warm sand. Alicia G. Longwell of the Parrish Art Museum also thought about the significance of sand when she created Sand: Memory, Meaning, and Metaphor. The book is a collection of prose, poetry and works of art ranging from paintings to elaborate multimedia constructions and traditionally-built sandcastles. Longwell focuses on the effect of sand on artists and their work including Pablo Picasso, William Merritt Chase, and Jackson Pollock, who is pictured on the beach with Lee Krasner. She also plays with sand, literally, using images of sand encased in glass to give the reader the opportunity to ponder the origin of glass. The focus of the book is far-reaching yet unified. One is left feeling that the final point is this: sand inspires. Children building castles with water-filled moats on Virginia Beach, glass blowers in the hot shop at TCC Portsmouth, and the artists and writers featured in this book all have one thing in common; as they allowed grains of sand flow through their fingers they were inspired to create.

- By Library Assistant Sara Mason