Vase 1900 - 1920

Louis Comfort Tiffany, who lived from 1900 to 1932, made this vase. It now lives at The Art Institute of Chicago. Imagine the glassblower holding a gather of molten glass, coaxing and shaping it, their breath and body heat part of the process. You can see how the red and blue lines move rhythmically across the surface. They remind me of sound waves, or maybe heat rising. I wonder what Tiffany was thinking about as he made this vase? Did he see the influence of the Vienna Secession movement? The dark stripe down the middle anchors the piece, providing a grounding force. It’s all one big conversation, this art thing. We keep building on what came before, riffing on each other's ideas. And just like that, something new emerges.