Tiffany Lamps: Articles of Utilities, Objects of Art
CREDITS
Tiffany Lamps: Articles of Utility, Objects of Art was organized by the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, New York. Local presentation was made possible by the generous support of SunTrust Bank.
RELATED LINKS
A review from the Daily Press in Newport News, with a slideshow.
From The Virginian-Pilot, a feature on this exhibition headlined "Light in Full Bloom at the Chrysler Museum of Art."
March 23 - June 5, 2011
This exhibition is an in-depth look at the Tiffany Studios’ deliberate efforts to produce lamps that balanced artistry with practicality and profitability.
Few items combined usefulness and attractiveness as successfully as a Tiffany lamp. As articles of utility, reading lamps, floor lamps, and hanging shades came in a wide variety of sizes and shapes to regulate and direct light. As objects of art, the lamps, with their interplay of colored glass and richly sculpted bronze, brought beauty into the home. Whether with understated, minimal accents of color or showy, elaborate design statements, Tiffany lamps complemented just about every decorative scheme.
But this exhibition, with more than 40 stunning objects in an array of colors, sizes, and decorative styles (as well as a selection of tools, materials, and period photographs) reveals both the beauty and the bottom line, the mastery and the marketability, of Tiffany’s workmanship.
As an author at the turn of the century noted, Louis Comfort Tiffany was motivated by "a desire not merely to add to the world’s beauty, but to bring beauty within reach of the public."
Tiffany Studios, Pond Lily Globe, ca. 1900-1905, leaded glass, bronze. Courtesy the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, New York.
