Observations: A Retrospective Exhibition of Works by Ann Wolff
The Mint Museum of Craft + Design
January 27, 2007- July 29, 2007
Ann Wolff is one of the most significant glass artists of the twentieth-century. Her works in glass, bronze, charcoal, pastel, and watercolor all share the same intense emotional images. Ann Wolff was born in 1937 in Lubeck, Germany. This time period in Germany was full of violence, grief and guilt. During this same year Picasso completed Guernica a deeply moving political work done in black and white that displays the horrors of war. Ann Wolff was influenced by Picasso's work and many of her triangular sculpted heads reflect this influence. Ann Wolff's sculptural forms are "expressive, intimate, lyrical and heroic". This retrospective will showcase her talents in all of these areas and will feature sixty works by the artist. This is the only venue in the United States to host her retrospective exhbition. In addition to the exhibition, Ann Wolff will give a lecture about her work on Saturday, January 27, 2006 at 3pm at The Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
Photograph of Ann Wolff
Online Sources
- Check out Ann Wolff's personal website which includes biographical information and an extensive online gallery.
- The Observations exhibition catalog can be found in full text online.
- In the mid 1980's, Ann Wolff worked closely with Harvey Littleton, the "father of American studio glass" who resides in North Carolina. Ann Wolff created sixteen vitreograph prints during her visits to Littleton Studios. Littleton Collection provides an interesting glimpse of what this entailed along with several images of her vitreograph prints. (See below for a definition of vitreograph print!)
- A review from the Contemporary Glass Society of the Observations show. Link no longer active 6-5-2015.
Des Femmes, 2000
- The Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark organized this exhibition and on their site is an essay about Ann Wolff's retrospective.
In the Library
At MMA
- Frantz, Susanne K. Contemporary Glass: A World Survey From the Corning Museum of Glass. New York: Henry Abrams, 1989. The source gives a history of glass art and is an excellent reference for glass artists of the twentieth-century including Ann Wolff.
- Prints From Glass. Western Carolina University. February 24-March 20, 1986. This is an exhibition catalog containing one of Ann Wolff's vitreograph prints.
- Wolff, Ann. Betragtninger Observations. Denmark: Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, 2005. This exhibition catalogue is now available at both locations.
At MMC+D
- Issaias, Heike. Ann Wolff. Stockholm: Raster Forlag, 2002. this gorgeous edition focuses on her glass work and includes a "conversation" with Helmut Ricke.
- Wolff, Ann. Betragtninger Observations. Denmark: Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, 2005.
Glossary of Terms
- Vitreograph- A print made from a glass plate that has been prepared by sandblasting and etching or that has been partially covered with silicone. For more information, see this article from the Littleton Collection website.
- Etching- An intaglio printing process in which an etching needle is used to draw into a wax ground applied over a metal plate. The plate is then submerged in a series of acid baths, each biting into the metal surface only where unprotected by the ground. The ground is removed, ink is forced into the etched depressions, the unetched surfaces wiped, and an impression is printed.
- Intaglio printing process- A graphic processes in which prints are made from ink trapped in the grooves in an incised metal plate.
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This wiki page was created by Rebecca Walton, Queens University intern, Fall 2006.
