Blenko 6741 Decanter airtwist Stopper 23 14 Blown Art Glass Joel Myers

Blenko Drinking glass: For Museums and the Masses

Above: Joel Philip Myers, 4 pieces in Olive Green.
From left to Right, Decanter (#6413), designed in 1964. 12.v"h;
Bottle (#6937), designed in 1969. 22.75"h;
Decanter (#6426), designed in 1964. 24.75"h;
Decanter (#6533), designed in 1965. 17"h.

Article & photos past Damon Crain
Modernism Mag
Volume 10, No. iii, Fall, 2007

Blenko is an ideal example of the dizzying innovation of mid-20th century America and the purest expression of a uniquely American modernist drinking glass art. The best of Blenko's piece of work demonstrates a direct connexion to the revolutionary principles of the fourth dimension in both art and design, be it testify of a Henry Moore and Russel Wright-like sensibility in the work of Blenko's commencement designer Winslow Anderson; the influence of Paul Klee or Le Corbusier in the work of Blenko's second designer, Wayne Husted; or the kinship of Blenko's third designer, Joel Myers, with Richard Diebenkorn'due south sense of colour and Eero Saarinen's mod organic forms. Undoubtedly, this accounts for Blenko'due south entreatment to collectors of all things modern.

The significance of Blenko's contributions to American design and studio drinking glass, especially its core innovations of dramatically enlarged calibration and bold solid colors, has remained largely unrecognized by museums, academics and texts. While experts have cited 1960s Pop Art as the forerunner for the enlarged scale that is seen equally an innovation brought to glass by of the Studio Drinking glass move, Blenko had been developing oversize pieces since at least 1954. In addition, Blenko pioneered a market for affordable modernistic art glass by putting pieces of exceptional design and quality inside economic reach of the largest segment of the population - the bourgeoning middle form - helping to pave the way for the many independent glass studios that followed. The story of Blenko's ascension is the 1 of a company adamant to reinvent itself in guild to succeed during hard times and savvy enough to ride the wave of America 'due south mail service-war years.

Above: Early Blenko vase in Ruby, c. 1930's. v.25"h x 5"d.

The company's founder, William J. Blenko, was built-in in 1854 to a poor family in London . Through formal preparation and apprenticeship, he developed superior skills every bit a chemist and specialized in the conception of colors for hand blown canvass glass used in stained glass windows. Blenko immigrated to the U.Due south. in 1893 to escape from England 's oppressive class system and to pursue America 'due south promise of economic opportunity by founding his ain glass visitor. His first three businesses were curt lived, but undeterred, he hands institute employment at other glasshouses in order to replenish his finances. Such was the quality of his work equally a chemist and foreman that, while working at an Ohio glass factory in 1919, he received a chore offering from Tiffany; instead, in December 1921, he founded the Eureka Art Drinking glass Company (renamed The Blenko Drinking glass Visitor in August 1930) in Milton, Westward Virginia .

In a higher place: This Blenko Heavy Swedish Type vase #R497) in Ocean Green with Crystal coil, is attributed to Carl Erickson. Designed c. 1940, information technology was shown in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1950 Exhibition "Twentieth Century Glass: American and European." 10"h. ten 6.25d.

Ii of import innovations set the company on a solid footing early on. The first was Blenko's invention of a new process for producing larger sheets of manus diddled glass more efficiently. The second was the perfection, in 1924, of the holy grail of stained drinking glass: a formula for a carmine-hued glass whose color would not be contradistinct by re-heating. This formula joined the almost 300 others that Blenko had developed. By 1927, cheers to the combination of a practiced product and the sales acumen of William Blenko's son Nib, the visitor was successfully selling handmade colored sail drinking glass to American artisans and studios.

Only 2 years later, however, the economic crunch that sparked the Cracking Depression destroyed the market for stained glass, as construction of new buildings came grinding to a halt. Undaunted, Bill Blenko managed to persuade his reticent begetter to diversify and endeavor producing tableware using the same fabric they had been using for sail glass. Pecker approached Carbone & Sons, a Boston retailer and importer of fine Italian and Swedish glassware, with an offering to supply them with a competitive domestically fabricated product. This was a brash proposition; Blenko had never before fabricated tableware.

Above: Winslow Anderson, big four-dent vase #910-iv
in Chartreuse, designed 1948, seven.5" h x 5.5"dia

Above: John Nickerson, Vase (#7220S) in Turquoise, designed in 1972. 12.5"h x 4"d. This vase presages Nickerson'south contained Studio Glass work for which he has since acheived much fame. The vase began as a bottle form, and was and then cut on a bias. Such cold piece of work was uncommon for Blenko, beacuse of the added expense of production

Carbone's finest glassware was produced past Giulio Radi of Arte Vetrario Muranese (A.VE.M) with whom Carbone had contracted to reproduce the famous designs of Italian masters like Barovier and MVM Capellin. This was to exist a steep learning curve indeed for Blenko.

The brothers Louis Miller and Axel Muller, who had been trained at the Kosta factory in Sweden where their father was a principal glassblower, were swiftly hired past Blenko from the nearby Huntington Tumbler Co. The two about enduringly important regions of glass product in the 20th century were Italy and Scandinavia, both noted for their groundbreaking blueprint sensibility and incomparably skilled craftsmanship; in America, they converged at Blenko.

To a higher place: Wayne Husted, Vase (#5942L) in Persian, designed in 1959. fifteen.5"h ten 3.75"d. Signed. Shown in the exhibition "Glass 1959" at the Corning Museum of Drinking glass

Blenko'due south early on tableware line of elementary, classic and utilitarian shapes quickly became its primary product. As has been the case for the company's entire history, the glassware was handmade, oral cavity blown and hot-worked with shaping tools in the traditional off-hand manner. Needing to train about of the workers from scratch, Blenko did not effort to compete with the Italians on technical perfection. Rather, the company turned to its greatest strength: the huge multifariousness of stunning and vibrant colors that information technology had adult over the past decade for stained glass. These colors became the most recognizable aspect of Blenko's tableware. By the mid 1930s, Blenko's glassware had earned an enviable reputation and could be found for sale at such leading stores equally Macy'southward and Gimbel'southward in New York, Lazarus in Ohio and Neiman Marcus in Texas.

A new Scandinavian influence came to Blenko in 1937, in the form of a new Swedish foreman, Carl Erickson, whose father and grandfather were master glassblowers at the Reijmyre manufactory in Sweden . After calculation some noteworthy designs to Blenko's line, marketed as "Swedish Type," Erickson left in 1942 to start his own visitor, the highly regarded Erickson Glassworks. His departure highlighted Blenko's need for design direction, simply the war years would put a agree on whatsoever new developments.

To a higher place: Wayne Husted "Architectural Scale" three-role Epergne (#5832) in Charcoal, designed in 1958. 35"h ten eleven"d. Signed. The traditional epergne is a dining tabular array centerpiece for presenting fruit, desserts or flowers. Husted'southward version, made of iii individual pieces og glass nestled inside 1 another, exemplifies how he transformed well established objects into entirely new and sculptural forms.

After the war, urged by their sales representative Ed Rubel, Blenko decided to distinguish itself from its competitors by embracing modern forms and made the pivotal decision, in 1947, to hire its first design director, Winslow Anderson. Anderson, a graduate of Alfred Academy - renowned for its ceramics plan - was handpicked for this coveted job by his teachers there. This move put Blenko at the vanguard of American companies at a time when the profession of "designer" was in its infancy.

An artist and designer, Anderson was deeply influenced by the abstract painter Hans Hoffman, and the fine art theory he consort in his volume "Search for the Existent," as well every bit by Bauhaus philosophy and Scandinavian pattern. Anderson as well had the distinct advantage of being steeped in the New York art scene while stationed in Queens during the war. His mixed media artwork was even exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim (then the Museum of Non-Objective Art ) in 1944 alongside that of distinguished artists such equally Harry Bertoia and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Above: Joel Philip Myers, Decanter (#6732L) in Plum, designed in 1967. 29.5"h x 4.25"d.

At Blenko, Anderson was given free rein to develop an entirely new line. In fact, Beak Blenko left for Europe on Anderson 'southward get-go day without so much as leaving instructions. The resulting line of virtually 30 new tableware designs, including vases, glasses, bottles, decanters, plates, bowls and pitchers, had a fresh new expect. Along with their minimal, organic and graceful shapes, Anderson also took the important pace of introducing a daring new dark-green yellow color called "Chartreuse" to the repertoire of more standard colors similar amber, amethyst, emerald, ruby and turquoise. Buoyed by the color's unqualified success, Blenko established the introduction of dramatic and unusual new colors as a cornerstone of its identity.

Anderson'due south near profound contribution was to gently challenge the rational expectation that designs exist primarily functional. He created forms so refined and refreshing that their function seemed to be no more a fringe do good to the object's sculptural qualities. In 1952, after ambitious attempts to lure him by both Steuben Drinking glass and Raymond Loewy, Anderson left for Lenox China . His departure was a significant blow to Blenko; there was no doubt that the company's strong growth and success were largely due to his intuitive knowledge of glass and his exceptional designs.

The "Rialto" Specialty Line was 1 of three very adventurous lines Wayne Husted designed in 1960. These lines, both technically and aesthetically different from the company'due south standard line, indicate an impulse to innovate and experiment in spite of the risks. The Specialty Lines are a testament to a visitor in its prime. Rialto 's translucent white was achieved past adding tin to the batch, which had the unfortunate side effect of making the drinking glass much more breakable. Combined with the annealing differential with the applied Red elements the loss rate was very high during manufacture and later on. Very few were fabricated as hardly any were ordered - a as outcome the Specialty Lines were a financial disaster for Blenko, almost forcing them into closure.
Left to right: #15-TO vase, 9.5in.H, #ii-TO decanter, 18.5in.H, #1-TO decanter, 25.75in. #xiii-TO vase, 13.125in.H, #sixteen-TO hurricane viii.5in.H on elevation of #8-TO candleholder, 6.75in.H, #4-TO decanter, xiv.25in.H, #3-TO decanter, 17in.Hm #12-TO vase, 8.5in.H

Above: John Nickerson "Charisma" Specialty Line Vase (#7221X) in Crystal with Ruddy, designed in 1972. 17.25"h x 3.75"d. "Charisma" was the beginning Specialty Line Blenko had attempted since 1961. With its Ruby garland color suspended in Crystal, the line refined a 19th-century American glass production technique from the mid-Atlantic region.

Not coincidentally, Anderson 's tenure also marked the beginning of the inclusion of Blenko pieces into a new blazon of museum bear witness and so proliferating effectually the land. These influential and pop juried exhibitions promoting modernistic design were organized by museums convinced of the need for arbiters of good taste for the masses at a time of unparalleled cultural evolution. Retailing and so in the range of $iii-$25 (most $25-130 in today'south dollars) Blenko glass was luxury good for the middle-form and a prime number candidate for these exhibitions. Blenko'southward products were included in the "etroit Institute of the Arts "An Exhibition for Modern Living" in 1949 and the Museum of Modern Art 'south popular semi-almanac "Good Design" shows from 1950 through 1954. Blenko's critical success is easy to explain: quite merely, no other American glass company was producing new, modern shapes in hand-blown drinking glass at this fourth dimension. Blenko had the market place cornered.

In 1953, Wayne Husted, Blenko's bold new designer, as well fresh from Alfred Academy , arrived with a single-minded fervor and vision. The door that Anderson had nudged open, Husted blew abroad entirely. For Husted, vessels were no more a pretense for creating abstract, sculptural shapes. A 1958 New York Times article entitled "Glass Objects Reverberate Trend to Art in Home Today" demonstrated the sculptural qualities of Husted's work by featuring his Blenko designs aslope Venini glass by Fulvio Bianconi.

Above: Joel Philip Myers, cone-footed vases, designed in 1970. From left to right: #7041 in Olive Green. 12.5"h; #7042 in Tangerine. 12.75"h; #7043S in Turquoise. 14"h; #7043L in Surf Green. fourteen.25"h.

Higher up: Hockaday Associates, blenko ad, 1961, incorporating Wayne Husted designs

Husted also took an agile role in marketing. He turned Blenko'due south catalogues into seductive photographic sales tools with his own Paul Klee-influenced artwork on the covers. He also convinced the company to invest in advertizement campaigns for which he selected Hockaday Associates, one of the near influential agencies of the day. Husted was a keen interpreter of market demands; with a inventiveness that knew no limitations he would seize on seemingly small-scale trends or suggestions and transform them into an entirely new genre. Blenko's California sales reps notoriously always wanted items "a little bigger;" Husted's advised retort was the inception of the "architectural calibration" genre, designs suitable for displaying merely on the floor as free-standing sculpture, ranging from 26 to 38 inches alpine.

Blenko's third designer, Joel Philip Myers, arrived in 1963. Myers's artful was already quite sophisticated; he had worked with Donald Deskey in New York and Richard Kjaergaard, an influential ceramist, in Denmark . Myers was enlightened of the nascent Studio Drinking glass movement and quickly set near learning glass blowing himself. Effectively maintaining an independent practice every bit a glass artist while at Blenko, Myers became an early and active participant in the Studio Glass move. By his ain account, allowed Myers to meet the possibility of his own career as a studio glass artist while designing for the mill. "Blenko has permitted me complete creative freedom and has encouraged me to experiment," he said. "My experimental work contributes many ideas and directions for use in our regular line.There is no reason to think that working for industry compromises a craftsman's aesthetic values."

Above: Blenko ad designed by Joel Philip Myers, 1967showing Myers designs from that year

At Blenko, Myers conspicuously reveled in the 1960s psychedelic re-interpretation of the Art Nouveau aesthetic, with masterfully exaggerated organic vessel forms. "I permit the glass to sag, flop, flow, stop, starting time, stretch," he said. "I command and still am beingness dictated to by the glass.." Myers introduced some of Blenko'due south best gaffers to the possibility of artistic creation and, as a effect, a few, including Shorty Finley and Earl Carpenter, developed noteworthy renown in their ain right. This firsthand connection between Blenko and the Studio Drinking glass movement but deepened during Myers' fruitful tenure.

Myers's later, very influential studio work belies an undeniable interest in color that was surely nurtured by his involvement with Blenko. In evaluating his contemporary work, critics regularly cite colour as a primary business, simply accredit this narrowly to an interest in artists such as Henri Matisse and Marking Rothko, as if unaware of his eight-year tenure at a glasshouse whose founding concern was color.

Myers began exhibiting his ain glass while at Blenko, including at the Toledo Glass National Ii in 1968 aslope glass masters Fritz Dreisbach, Dominick Labino, Marvin Lipofsky and Richard Marquis and at the Smithsonian Establishment's "Ceramic Arts USA" in 1966, an invitational exhibition featuring leading American artists, where he showed with Labino. Myers introduced Lipofsky to Blenko in 1968 and Dreisbach in 1976. (A sculpture that Lipofsky made at Blenko in 1968 is now in the collection of the Smithsonian'south Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.) Myers's inclusion in the seminal 1969 exhibition "Objects U.s.a." is attestation to the importance of Blenko not simply to the Studio Drinking glass motility simply to the larger Craft Motility as well. Myers left Blenko to establish the glass department at Illinois State University and today ranks as one of the nigh recognized and exhibited glass artists in the world.

Blenko Itemize cover by Wayne Husted, 1955

Blenko's success and relevance did not past any means get unnoticed by the guardians of high civilisation. Museums were actively exhibiting and acquiring Blenko for their permanent collections as early every bit the 1940s. The most prescient and revealing of these museum exhibitions was the 1950 show "Twentieth Century American and European Glass" at the Metropolitan Museum . In this exhibition, Blenko appears alongside Tiffany representing "outstanding examples" of drinking glass pattern. The catalogue commented that developments in design and production had helped elevator the glassmaking industry "from its lethargic traditionalism. On one paw mechanization of the manufacture has created unequaled standards of precision and quality in production, while on the other the original designs of able artists take given it uncommon distinction."

Blenko appeared again at the Metropolitan Museum in the exhibition "Craftsmanship in America" in 1952, only mayhap the near significant exhibition to include Blenko at this time was the groundbreaking "Glass 1959," a juried international earth-wide survey of the glass industry at the Corning Museum of Glass. Blenko's entry was an exceptional design: a cylindrical vase with u-cut pinnacle and weighted encased crystal base of operations, designed expressly for the evidence by Wayne Husted. Its presence aslope the likes of internationally esteemed houses Salviati, Venini, Kosta and Orrefors lent Blenko important exposure and prestige. More recently, the Corning Museum included Blenko in a small simply powerful survey exhibition entitled "Decades in Drinking glass: the '50s."

Above: Wayne Husted "Accents,: designed in 1958, both in Tangerine. #5730L, 10"h, left, and #5730, 7.75"h, right.

Blenko's golden catamenia ended every bit a result of 2 developments: the expiry in 1969 of Bill Blenko, the visitor'due south guiding strength, spelled the demise of Blenko's early on vision, and the Studio Glass motion began to challenge the company's standing in the marketplace of unusual, mod hand blown sculptural vessels. Direct contest with studio drinking glass product - unique drinking glass objects by independent artists in small-scale studios - though certainly a factor was less of a problem than the modest glass factories that the motility inspired.

Unbeknownst to Blenko, its fourth designer, John Nickerson, hired in 1971 and the commencement to make it well versed in studio glass, heralded the bear on of the emerging Studio Glass movement. Ironically, Nickerson's designs generally shunned the more flamboyant Studio Glass influence in favor of a simpler, more restrained artful, with a renewed focus on the functional vessel grade. No doubt this was in part due to the new president, William H. Blenko Jr., grandson of the founder who called for new priorities for a new time. He imposed a more commercial standard, with more conservative colors and simpler designs that could be executed efficiently with less handcraft skill. At the same time, work past Studio Glass artists and small companies inspired by or founded past Studio Drinking glass artists, was becoming more mature and accessible. After only four years' tenure, Nickerson left Blenko to cultivate his own successful independent Studio Glass practice, participating in numerous exhibitions including the Corning Museum 's "New Drinking glass '79."

Blenko'south success stemmed from its progressive attitude, its fearless young designers and, of form, high quality, handmade glass never before seen in such large-scale, fantastical shapes or bold colors, of an importance not seen since Tiffany'due south domination of American Art Nouveau glass. In a twoscore year period of fostering dramatic new aesthetic developments and pioneering pattern, Blenko built a market for and a national sensation of modern art glass: sculptures for the domestic environment.

In a higher place: all Joel Philip Myers designs

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Source: https://www.cultureobject.com/press-2007-modernism.htm

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