Untitled (from the Pendulum Series)
Artist
Vallien, Bertil
(Swedish, born 1938)
Dateca. 1995
MediumSand-cast colorless glass with hot-worked multi-colored glass and metal inclusions, steel frame
Dimensions56 × 12 1/4 × 12 1/4 in. (142.2 × 31.1 × 31.1 cm)
ClassificationsGlass
Credit LineGift of The Leah and Richard Waitzer Foundation
Object number2022.153
Label TextBertil Vallien
(Swedish, b. 1938)
Untitled (from the Pendulum series)
Sand-cast colorless glass with hot-worked multi-colored glass and metal inclusions, steel frame, about 1995
Gift of The Leah and Richard Waitzer Foundation. 2022.153
Upon graduation in 1961 from the venerable Konstfack University in Stockholm, Bertil Vallien initially focused on ceramics. However, he was soon hired as a designer in the Swedish glass industry centered in Småland, where he established enduring industry relationships and still maintains his own studio practice. Vallien has designed blown glass tableware and decorative objects, as well as limited editions and unique sculptures. In the mid-1960s he began to experiment with sand-casting glass, pouring it into open molds at increasingly larger scales, a process for which he became internationally known.
The rough and grainy exterior imparted by the sand mold contrasts with the smooth top surface of the molten glass when cooled, allowing views into the transparent interior that Vallien exploits by layering in glass symbols, fragments, and figures seemingly frozen in animation. In this vertical glass sculpture, the timeless archetype of a stylized figure acts as an immobilized pendulum suspended in its steel frame.
The pendulum, the glass, the decadence, and the water rise. A giant-like pendulum hangs above Piazza San Marco. The pendulum invalidates time, is independent of the Earth’s rotation. Time is beyond life’s landscape. Eternity.
~Bertil Vallien, Venice, 2012
Status
On view
