Glass: sand, ash, heat

Abstract

"This elegant volume highlights human connection through glass, a material that embodies a rich historical exchange between technology and the arts. The New Orleans Museum of Art holds one of the nation's finest and most extraordinary collections of glass, with nearly 5,000 works ranging from tiny ancient Egyptian amulets to large-scale contemporary works of conceptual sculpture, and including nearly every moment of glass expression between. This sumptuously illustrated publication presents an openness to different avenues of understanding and interpreting these works of art, bringing together essays by museum curators and conservators, as well as a glass artist, a foodways historian, a laboratory scientist, and a New Orleans Black Masking Mardi Gras Indian. The story of glass as presented in Glass: Sand, Ash, Heat is one of scientific achievement, worldwide trade in objects and ideas, and, always, beautiful artistic expression. It is published to celebrate a special exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Director's foreword / Susan M. Taylor -- Introduction / Mel Buchanan -- Building a collection: glass at NOMA / Mel Buchanan, Laura Ochoa Rincon -- Sand, ash, heat: a history of glass / Mel Buchanan -- Interview with artist Gene Koss / Mel Buchanan -- Glass's vital role in a scientific laboratory / Alex Sanchez -- Connections mini and mighty: West African beadwork in New Orleans and beyond / Dow M. Edwards, Amanda M. Maples -- Venetian glass: 800 years of exchange / Christopher Maxwell -- A pastoral longing - one century apart / Laura Ochoa Rincon -- In plain sight: E. J. Bellocq and photography on glass / Brian Piper -- Looking for Nellie and Lulu in glass / Zella Palmer -- Glass symbols of temperance and prohibition / Laura Ochoa Rincon -- The art and science of glass conservation / Ingrid Seyb.