ResearchPaper2_ComparativeAnalysis_BPLonginotti

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Pettinati-Longinotti 1

Betti Pettinati-LonginottiAdvisor, Ben Sloat

Group 3, Research Paper IISeptember 19, 2011

Comparative Analysis: Stained Glass Windows of Gerhard Richter and Kiki Smith

Intrigue and infatuation with the medium of flat glass is rare but not new to the investigation

of the Post-Modern artist. Marcel Duchamp, Father of Conceptual Art and who is known for his

use of the medium for assemblage, marked the territory with his piece in the collection at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Large Glass (e.g. see fig. 1). This piece denotes for my own

glasswork the pivotal stance between the inspiration, ethics, aesthetics and the disparity between the

fine art and fine craft. The Large Glass is a work I have viewed many times in my professional life

as an artist and educator, having interned at the museum in the early 1980s. Post-apprenticeship to

my experience in stained glass, this disparity first became full-circle for myself, in an interview I

conducted with Harvey Littleton, Father of the Studio Glass Movement. This movement in studio

glass was initiated by Littleton and his apostles, first students of Littleton, in the early 1960s. In the

early eighties, I was a glass student of Roland Jahn, University of the Arts/ Philadelphia, and forever

deemed a granddaughter on the family tree, as Jahn was one of those early apostles in the Studio

glass movement. My graduate work (MA in Art Education/Glass) brought me to Professor Emeritus

Littleton's North Carolina studio (Spruce Pine) for an interview in the spring of 1982. During this

collegiate-archived interview, Littleton prompted a discussion, regarding flat glass exemplars, which

naturally arose out of my evolving interest and experience. Within our discussion, he highlights

Albinas Elskus and Marcel Duchamp. At the time, Elskus was a contemporary glass painter and

wrote the heralded text on the medium and technique, The Art of Painting on Glass. Littleton had


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critical words about Duchamp and hisLarge Glass, stating the broken occurrence of the piece

happened unnecessarily in result of Duchamp not knowing the technology (Littleton). Thus, this

disparity I find in the medium of (flat) glass between the two great art fathers of the Post-Modern

era, between Duchamp and Littleton, causes a personal dilemma referencing these exemplars for my

life as an artist. During the transportation of Duchamp's The Large Glass from an exhibition in

1927, the glass panes shattered. Rather than replace the broken glass, Duchamp painstakingly

pieced together the glass fragments (Kleiner 706). The lines fanned out as huge cracks, anticipating

the direction the subsequent fractures took when the glass was eventually broken by accident.

Duchamp's acceptance of the intervention of nature or at least of fate provided opportunity to

embrace new conceptual constructs (Masheck 39). Littleton's historically marked and poignant

motto, "Technique is Cheap!" comes to fruition in Duchamps living document of the Large Glass.

(Fig. 1)

Marcel Duchamp, Oil, varnish, lead foil,

lead wire, and dust on two glass panels

9 feet 1 1/4 inches x 69 1/4 inches,The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large

Glass)

1915-23

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Knowledge of technique seems to be a converging wedge between contemporary art and

contemporary craft, and becomes immensely apparent in the recent glassworks of Gerhard Richter

and Kiki Smith. I am now ecstatic to have discovered some contemporary references to follow for


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flat glass, in both Richter and Smith, outside the arena and/or limitations of contemporary craft. Oh,

and how sweet it is, the clamor it has created within the stained glass industry. Stained glass with its

entrenched history and technique does not embrace change well or quickly. After all, the artisans

who presently respect the long held tradition of the lead-came method, tracing back to the 12th

century, have still not embraced the newer method of the copper-foil that was invented my Louis

Comfort Tiffany over a century ago. Through her lecture to AIB MFA students last semester,

Professor Jan Avigkos challenges us to find our place in entering the 'discourse'(Avigkos). I found

myself in the discourse this past summer at the American Glass Guild conference, where the

physical presence of Kiki Smith and Gerhard Richter were not to be found. However, through

conversation and remarks to presentations, found lively.

The points of critical departure regarding Richter and Smith mostly dwell upon their use of

the contemporary technique of lamination, within the field of stained glass, which excludes the lead

line in its fabrication. In my discussion, I explore a comparison of Richter and Smith and their

architectural explorations with the medium of flat glass, most significantly including the use of

lamination as a choice for fabrication.

The two architectural installations that I would like to compare are the window Gerhard

Richter created for the Cologne Cathedral (e.g. see fig. 2) in Germany and Kiki Smith, the window

for the renovated East window of the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York (e.g. see fig. 3). For

both of the two architectural projects of Kiki Smith and Gerhard Richter, the artists were the

principle designers commissioned for these installations. However, neither Smith nor Richter was

the fabricators of these architectural works. In the instance of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, Smith

worked with Deborah Gans, architect, as co-designer; and the window was fabricated by the Gil

Studios in Brooklyn.


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(Fig.2)Gerhard Richter,2007,Pixels not Parables,Cologne Cathedral Window, 65 feet x 25 feet.

(Fig. 3)Kiki Smith/ Deborah Gans,2010,Renovated East Window,

Eldridge Street Synagogue, 16 Diameter.

Although I have not been able to find the name of the studio or fabricator of the Richters 65

window in the Cologne Cathedral, it is improbable that he fabricated it without assistance from a


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professional stained glass studio. On the Cathedrals website, it entails the design and fabrication

considerations that Richter undertook (Schock-Werner).

It became evident upon closer examination that for design- and concept-related reasons, the means

and methods of contemporary stained-glass production would not allow this suggested theme, 20th

century Martyrs of the Holocaust, to be developed to the artistic level considered appropriate for the

cathedral. Therefore, the Cologne based artist Gerhard Richter was invited to submit a proposal.

Richter came up with a design that was strongly reminiscent of his 1970s

color charts in that it featured 72 different shades of colored squares. In the new window, each of

these squares is made of genuine mouth-blown glass. In order to ensure that the window would

blend into the cathedral as a whole, the artist only used colors that featured in the other windows

within the cathedral. Moreover, to avoid the effect of colored squares separated by lead came the

squares were attached to a pane of plain glass using silicone rubber. This had the added benefit

of allowing the window to have the same degree of appreciation both inside and outside the

Cathedral. Richter used a specially developed computer program to determine the random

arrangement of the colored squares in one-half of the window (Schjeldahl).

Richterhascausedaclamorwithintherealmofecclesiasticaltradition,asitrelatesto

theappropriatenessofdesign.Hisfabricationchoiceinvigoratestheongoingdebatewithin

thestainedglassindustry,regardingtheuseoflaminationasalonglastingmethodof

construction.FortheEldridgeStreetSynagogue,Smithdesignedthewindowtoexcludethe

leadlines,andusedsiliconeforitsfabrication.Thecommonsentimentfoundinthe

internetcommentaryistypicalofcriticismwithinthestainedglassindustry:

Unfortunately, the frame was mounted backwards which will allow it to leak

when the seal starts to break down in 10 years. Trust me it will. The


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techniques used to attach the colored glass to the solid clear glass were big 30

years ago so there is no earth shaking new technique here. Also it has proven

that the adhesive will yellow in a few years depending on how much direct

UV ray is gets. Eventually the clear spaces between the glass will soon go

black with dirt because the adhesive was not covered to protect it for

absorbing the fine particles that are in air and that are black when you are near

a road like this window is located. I comment from my 35 years as an Artist

that works in glass and has learned from my mistakes. I will withhold my

thought on the weakness of the design and glass selections. IMHO

(basicallyst).

AlthoughIfindtheabovecommentaryfairlyarrogantandoppositionalto

contemporarythought,andIevenhighlydisagreewiththelaststatement,Idoquestionthe

practiceoflaminationasafabricationprocessforarchitecturalwork,whichisknowntolast.

TheproblemsstatedregardingtheUVraysandthediscolorationoftheglassisunknown.At

best,thisisaveryexpensivescienceexperiment.Newproductswithintheindustryabound,

andIamquitesureRichterandSmithmadethebestchoicesforthesiliconematerial.Actually,

Iwouldlovetoknowtheexactbrandsofthesiliconeproducttheyused.Completelyenthralled

withSmithsdesignstrengthandchoiceofglassselections,Ifindbeautifulintricaciesinthe

simplicityofthought,attachedtoJudaichistory,culturaltraditionandimpactuponAmerican

immigrationoftheJewishpeople(CBSNews).

IcouldnothavemadebetterchoicesfortheglassthatSmithorRichterchoseforthese

installations,astheyareunmistakablyLambertsglass(Bendheim).Lambertsisacompanyin


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Germanythatisoneofthelastmanufacturersofantiqueglass.Antiqueglass,amouth-blown

glass,isnotbecauseofitsage,butbecauseoftheprocess,bywhichitismade,whichdates

backtotheMiddleAges.Joyfully,LambertsantiqueglassisthecommonthreadIsharewith

theseartists,SmithandRichter!Thecharacteristicqualitiesofmouth-blownantiqueglassare

amajorpartofmyinfatuationwithglassasmedium.

Inconclusion,ImuststateIhaveonlypartiallycoveredallthatIneedtodiscussinthis

comparativeanalysis.Inmynextpaper,Iwillcontinueacomparisonconnectedmoreclosely

tomyownwork.IwillexplorechoicesIhavemadeformyowncurrentworkinglass

associatedtotheworkofGerhardRichterandKikiSmith.


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Bibliography

Avigkos,Jan.EnteringtheDiscourse.ArtInstituteofBostonatLesleyUniversity.21June

2011.Lecture.basicallyst...Commentaryto:Video:ANewEastWindowonEldridgeStreet.TheNewYork

Times.18 October 2010. Web. 17 September 2011..

Bendheim,S.A.,Featured Project: Eldridge Street Synagogue and Museum by Kiki Smith &Deborah Gans.Bendheim Art Glass: Project Gallery. 2010. Web. 20 September 2011.

Kleiner,FredS.andChristinJ.Mamiya.Gardner'sArtThroughtheAges,TheWestern

Perspective(12thEdition).NewYork:ThompsonWadsworth,2009.Print.

Masheck,Joseph-MarcelDuchampinPerspective.EnglewoodCliffs,CO:PrenticeHall,2002.

Print.Schjeldahl, Peter. "Many Colored Glass." The New Yorker. 12 May. 2008. Web.10 September 2011.

Schock-Werner, Barbara. On the Genesis of Design.Klner Dom. May 2008. Web.10 September

2011..

Spears,Dorothy.ThroughAGlass,Busily.TheNewYorkTimes.26March2010.Web.10

September 2011.

SynagoguesStainedGlassCelebratesFestivalofLights.CBSNews.5December2010.

.Web. 20 July 2011

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