New Acquisitions in 2024

In 2024, we ventured across the pond for the first time to get to know the US glass scene. One of our first destinations was the Habatat Gallery near Detroit, renowned worldwide as an El Dorado for collectors and lovers of glass art. We discovered a number of fantastic artists there whose works represent an enormous range of different styles and techniques. It was with great pleasure that we were able to acquire some unusual pieces for the collection of the Glasmuseum Lette, which can now be enjoyed in this exhibition.

“Siku (Dire Wolf)” is one of them, a boldly crafted wolf’s head, hand sculpted and engraved with strong surface textures by Shelley Muzylowski Allen. The artist grew up in northern Canada, so it is not surprising that her work often deals with the myths, natural environment, and animals of her homeland: “Rendering these creatures in states of grace, repose, or movement, I hope to capture their inherent nature. My background as a painter and an understanding of anatomy form the basis from which I depart towards more impressionistic or contemplative expressions and vignettes.”

We were also captivated by David Patchen’s work. The glass artist uses traditional murrine and cane patterning techniques, which he learned in part from the masters in Murano. But he applies these methods in his very own way, displaying a passion for experimentation, meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail. This results in colourful, highly complex sculptures whose patterns exude an endless fascination. One of these is “Aqua Glow Eclipse”, which was inspired by ancient fossilised corals and their astoundingly lifelike organic shapes.

Excellent glass art also captured our attention in galleries and exhibitions across Europe and Germany. The works selected by an expert jury in the 2024 competition for the 2nd Hadamar Glass Prize are a striking example. Among the participants we noticed a few young artists who use the medium of glass in a way that is highly professional and yet innovative and unconventional. Fortunately, we were able to acquire several award-winning works for the collection, including the first-prize winner “Hidden in the Shadows”, a flat glass painting by the young artist Marius Zwick. With incredible precision and artistic vision, the artist uses hammer and chisel on safety glass to create cracks and fissures that generate a haunting portrait. Theme, depiction and technique are congenially combined here.

Wanja Sturhan was awarded a sponsorship prize for his work “Der Baum” (The Tree), in which the young artist masterfully achieves a poetic symbiosis of two contradictory materials – glass and stone. The treetop with its delicate and dense branches rises up from a gnarled trunk whose roots are not hidden in the ground but joined to the rock. The qualities of glass and stone could not be more different, and yet Sturhan overcomes this contradiction thanks to his talent and flair for lamp glass.

All of these exciting new acquisitions will be on view in our first exhibition in 2025 – we look forward to seeing you there!

 

PHOTO CREDITS:
Photo top: David Patchen, Aqua Glow Eclipse, 2023 – Photo: David Patchen
Photos from left:
David Patchen, Aqua Glow Eclipse, 2023 – Photo: David Patchen
Christina Bothwell, Sometimes I Dream the Strangest Things, 2021 – Photo: Robert Bender
Jamie Harris, Infusion Block in Opaline, Ruby, Amber, Brown and Blue, 2023 – Photo: Jamie Harris Studio Inc
Lucy Lyon, Blue, 2017 – Photo: Addison Doty
Wanja Sturhan, Der Baum, 2024 – Photo: Andreas Neef (studioneef)
Marius Zwick, Hidden in the Shadows, 2022 – Photo: Marius Zwick
K.William LeQuier, Droplet, 2023 – Photo: Gerard Roy
Shelley Muzylowski Allen, Siku (Dire Wolf), 2020 – Photo: Rik Allen
Tim Rawlinson, In Conversation, 2018 – Photo: Alick Cotterill
Paul Schwieder, A Charm, 2023 – Photo: Paul Schwieder
Giuliano Gaigher, Mattone, 2024 – Photo: Ruggero Giuliani
Demetra Theofanous, Reveal / Conceal, 2021 – Photo: Keay Edwards

 

Julius Weiland – Painting versus Glass!

Julius Weiland is best known for his artworks made of glass, which can be found in many renowned collections (Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum Kunstpalast, Würth Collection, Veste Coburg Art Collections and the Glasmuseum Lette). In recent years, the artist has added painting to his practice, exhibiting these works alongside his glass art.Now the Berliner-by-choice Julius Weiland is coming to Lette to present a type of exhibition that is a first even for the Glasmuseum, because his glass art will be accompanied by his paintings, not displayed in isolation but in the context of glass objects that have in some cases been made expressly for this show. Thus the title “Painting versus Glass!” The materiality of the two media could not be more different, and yet these works are united by the theme of architecture.

In fact, architecture was the inspiration for this series of works. The focus is on post-war construction in East Berlin from the 1960s to the 1980s in a style that is referred to as Brutalism in the West and Socialist Modernism in the East. Weiland himself lives in a block of flats from this period, in a building ensemble called “Platz der Vereinten Nationen” (United Nations Square, formerly Leninplatz) that was once a prestige project and symbol of the progressive attitude of former East Germany. Today his apartment building is a listed monument. Weiland’s paintings of this building and others, such as those in the High-Deck housing estate in Neukölln, start with pencil sketches on canvas, which he modifies here and there, leaving things out and alienating the real-life model. The resulting oil paintings are perspectival renderings made up of homogeneous-looking horizontal and vertical colour fields that remain distinct from one another, neither melding nor overlapping. Although this approach transforms the built architecture into a flat, two-dimensional view, the many shifts in perspective create a virtual spatiality that is echoed in the paintings’ counterparts – the glass objects – with an actual three-dimensional spatial experience. This juxtaposition is further enhanced by the transparency of the glass.

Weiland’s artistic intention merges with social concerns, as the buildings he depicts were once highlights of visionary social housing, which often pursued a certain ideology but was ultimately unable to meet people’s needs due to design flaws and austerity measures. The artist responds to this historical circumstance by likewise reducing and minimising his paintings, in the end revealing only the basic structure of his architectural models. He then transfers this structure to the medium of glass, extracting geometric shapes, lines, polygonal elements and patterns from the picture surface and recreating them in the glass object. The result is a new combination of motifs that play across the glass volume, either loosely assembled or condensed, or sometimes blown up to larger proportions. Whenever Weiland considers a pictorial motif to be particularly important, he makes it the main theme of his glass object. The colours in the glass are based on the painted picture, with the light making the object glow. This creates a vibrant atmosphere that is lacking in both painted and real architecture.

Weiland’s art covers a broad and varied spectrum, as demonstrated on the second level of the Glasmuseum, where his early works in glass are on view, fused glass tubes that often exhibit a playful dynamic. The artist received international awards for his work with glass tubes. In the course of his development, he then changed their design, size and density. Later, he turned to mouth-blown glass, producing multicoloured, upbeat works that are sometimes figurative. All of them attest to how Julius Weiland is constantly engaged in reinterpreting glass and enriching the world of glass art.

Photo credit:

Photo above: Julius Weiland, Aubette (Cinema), Öl auf Leinwand, 2023 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Eric Tschernow

Photos from left to right:

Julius Weiland, Wandelhalle, Öl auf Leinwand, 2022 +  Modular 1, 2024 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Polygon, 2022 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Fred auf der Treppe, Öl auf Leinwand, 2020 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Formation 3, 2023 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

 

Julius Weiland, Slump, 2022 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Untitled V, 2019 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, High Deck 2, Öl auf Holz, 2022 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024,  Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Ephemeral Purple, 2012 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

 

Julius Weiland, Blue Sky, 2018 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, Down the Rabbit Hole, 2017 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Eric Tschernow

Julius Weiland, Matrix, Öl auf Holz, 2022 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland, o.T., 2002 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Horst Kolberg