Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light

March 4- June 4, 2016
Williams Center Gallery, Williams Center for the Arts

The Williams Center Gallery presents Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light, from the Neustadt Collection, Queens, N.Y., which illustrates Louis Comfort Tiffany’s masterful use of opalescent glass to achieve painterly results.

As a painter, Louis C. Tiffany was captivated by the interplay of light and color, and this fascination found its most spectacular expression in his glass “paintings.” Through the medium of opalescent glass, Tiffany could actually capture light in color and manipulate it to achieve impressionistic effects. Using new and innovative techniques and materials, Tiffany Studios created leaded-glass windows and lampshades in vibrant colors and richly varied patterns, textures, and opacities.

Dragonfly Reading Lamp, ca. 1899, Tiffany Studios, New York Shade designed by Clara Driscoll (1861-1944) Leaded glass with metal filigree, bronze H: 25 in.; Diam.: 16 in. Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Salve Regina, after 1910 Tiffany Studios, New York Frederick Wilson (1858-1932), designer Created for Stony Wold Sanatorium Chapel, Lake Kushaqua, New York Leaded glass, The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Wisteria Library Lamp, ca. 1901, Tiffany Studios, New York Clara Driscoll (1861–1944), designer Leaded glass, bronze H: 26 ½ in.; Diam.: 18 in. The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Wisteria Library Lamp, ca. 1901, detail, The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York

Tiffany Studios, New York Daffodil Library Lamp, ca. 1905 Leaded glass, bronze Courtesy of Ellen Kravet Burke and Ray Burke

Tiffany Studios, New York Daffodil Library Lamp, ca. 1905, detail Leaded glass, bronze Courtesy of Ellen Kravet Burke and Ray Burke

Organized by The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York City, Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light is comprised of windows, lamps, and a selection of opalescent flat glass and pressed-glass “jewels” that illustrate the rich expanse of color and light available to the artists at the Tiffany Studios. The objects are some of the most iconic and celebrated of Tiffany’s works. Chosen for their rendering of nature in flowers or landscape scenes and for the subtle use of light and shading in decorative geometric patterns, they exemplify the rich and varied glass palette, sensitive color selection, and intricacy of design that was characteristic of Tiffany’s leaded-glass objects. In addition to exploring materials and their effects, the exhibition also discusses the contributions of one of Tiffany’s leading designers, Clara Driscoll.

Exhibition made possible by the generosity of Ellen Kravet Burke ’76 and Ray Burke ’75, In honor of Mr. & Mrs. Larry Kravet, Floral Park, New York.

The exhibition was included in extensive programming exploring the superb art glass windows commissioned by the College from the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in 1898 and 1899. Full information available here.