1970 Edvin Öhrström Modern Abstract Violet Glass Sculpture

Details

Description

Edvin Öhrström is a Swedish sculptor and glass artist known for inventive techniques. These took many forms including sculptures, design … Read more Edvin Öhrström is a Swedish sculptor and glass artist known for inventive techniques. These took many forms including sculptures, design objects, and public art.

Glass Sculptural Form:
The plane of the glass slightly leans at the base and its top curves forward, creating subtle visual movement. In addition, one side of the relief is smooth and the opposite side is textured with small protrusions of varying size in an overall pattern. These create the rounded shapes that are most prominently seen when viewing it from the smooth side. In some photographs reflected color, light, and objects around and behind the glass influence its appearance..

Contextual Photograph
This listing includes a contextual photograph of the artist's studio and a close up of the same photograph showing similar sculptures with rectilinear textured surface that suggest exploration of this form in his work. While Öhrström is sometimes better known in the U.S. for his inventive luxe densely layered bowl forms featuring figurative images, such as those in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, this sculpture shows a more direct modernist investigation into material, color, light, and form that is both elegant and raw in its expression.

Edvin Ohrstrom Swedish, 1906–1994
Glass Sculpture, 1970, Unique Work
Sweden
Light violet glass presented on black-stained wood base
Signed: E. Öhrström 1970
Note: One side of the relief is smooth and one side is textured, suggesting a variation on a slumping technique. The signature is located on the upper right of the smooth side.
Total height: 16 5/32 in. (41.0 cm)
Width of base: 14 5/8 in. (37.0 cm)
Width of relief: 12 13/16 in. (31.0 cm)
Depth of base: 4 3/4 in. (12.0 cm)
Depth of relief: 1 3/16 in. (3.0 cm)
Excellent modernist work. The visual patterns, inclusions, fractures within the glass, and irregular edges are intentional. The glass relief is sturdy, not fragile. There is minor wear and construction irregularities at the base, which are consistent with its emphasis on revealed construction and modernist materiality. While the glass is embedded in the wood base, there is material securing it firmly in place that is intuitively finished in keeping with the organic materials. The entire base structure is stained black in a value in keeping with the overall color monochrome of the glass.. This treatment is somewhat thin with areas in which wood show through. The plane of the glass slightly leans at the base and its top curves forward, creating subtle visual movement. In addition, one side of the relief is smooth and the opposite side is textured with small protrusions of varying size in an overall pattern. These create the rounded shapes that are most prominently seen when viewing it from the smooth side. In some photographs reflected color, light, and objects around and behind the glass influence the works appearance. See less