Passage #5
Artist
Peiser, Mark
(American, born 1938)
Date2014
OriginUnited States of America
MediumCast glass
Dimensions34 × 12 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (86.4 × 31.8 × 19.1 cm)
ClassificationsGlass
Credit LineGift of Carolyn K. and Richard F. Barry III
Object number2017.105
Label TextMark Peiser (American, born 1938)
Passage #5
Hot-cast, phase-separated glass, cast glass base, 2014
Gift of Carolyn K. and Richard F. Barry III
This glass is a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, in other words, a lucky learning experience.
~Mark Peiser, 2013
Mark Peiser is a highly acclaimed studio glass pioneer, engineer, and innovator who, to this day, creates his own glass formulations that develop closely with his sculptural intent. The Passages series began in 2012, following his intense study of the massive Hale Telescope mirror at the Palomar Observatory in California, completed in 1948. Peiser realized that the mirror’s single glass formula produced a surprising spectrum of colors, depending on the glass’ thickness. The artist harnessed this visual effect, caused by the optical qualities of polychroic glass with phosphate as a key ingredient, to create sculptures that respond to light with polychrome volume. Here, the stepped high arc of the portal invokes an element of passage and transition, emphasized by refracting and scattering light in a color spectrum from pale white opal to progressively darker shades of amber, recalling the changing hues of a sunset.
Status
On view
