Venice, Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 29 August – 25 November, 2012
Celebrating the inventor of sandcasted glass
“Glass offers opportunities like no other material. It has everything. For me—says Bertil Vallien—the blowing room is the centre of everything. It’s like ladling matter out of a volcano and watching the glowing lava turn to ice. Knowing the exact moment at which to capture a shift of light and wrench the secret from the glass is what it’s all about”.
One of the most celebrated glass artists and designers in Sweden, Vallien is known most of all as the master of sand moulding, in fact the term sandcasted glass has come to be inextricably linked to him. He took up and developed this originally industrial technique (used in metal casting), and continues to explore its possibilities.
Each new technical advance widens and enhances the artistic range, generating countless cycles of themes and motifs. This book gathers about 60 works grouped into thematic series such as ‘boats’, ‘heads’, ‘landscapes’, ‘black pieces’, an ideal synthesis of the artist’s creative pathway.
