Glass Art Through Time
Glass making traces its history back to the 3th millennium BCE when the art of glass making was discovered by the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia or Egypt. Like most other materials in those times, glass was used for practical reasons rather than decoration, however, the earliest glass workers soon discovered that glass is highly versatile and thus artistic endeavour can be noticed already in thousands of years old glass items.
Glass art in the true meaning of the word emerged only in the 20th century although glass was used as a medium for art works much earlier. One of the best examples is stained glass which played an essential role in Romanesque and Gothic art, and can still be admired in many medieval churches throughout Europe. But the greatest contribution to development of glass art as such came from Murano, one of the series of islands in the Venetian Lagoon in Italy. By the 14th century, Murano emerged as the centre of glass making and retained the leading role in luxury glass products for centuries as well as played an important role in the emergence of modern glass art. Even more, Murano glass is by many considered as the beginning of glass art and is still used as inspiration by many modern glass artists.
Although glass works from Murano and many early factory produced glass items are artworks rather than just exceptional items made of glass, they do not fall into the definition of glass art because they were originally intended to have a practical function, whereas glass artworks are exclusively appreciated for their artistic value and are typically used only as decorative objects. Some contemporary glass artworks may have a practical value too but they are never really used for other than decoration.
The actual glass art movement started only after the introduction of machines in glass production in the 19th century which enabled the most talented individuals to experiment with glass and focus on creation of artworks rather than glassware. But the glass art as we know it today was born only in the 1960s when the American glass artists such as Harvey Littleton, Dominic Labino, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly and some others initiated the so-called studio glass movement which shortly thereafter spread to Europe and many other parts of the world, and gave the artists the role of a creator of one-of-the-kind pieces of glass art. Before that, the most exquisite glass items were created by a team of factory workers rather than a single artist although most glass artists work with a team of assistants as well.
The studio glass movement gave glass art an official status of an art form and equated glass artworks with other types of artworks. The emergence of glass art as such also saw the rise of new techniques and methods of glass making as introduction of new forms and glassblowing in private studios required a new approach to the art of glass making.