Caught in a Flood

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Object Name: 
Stained Glass
Title: 
Caught in a Flood
Maker(s): 
Place Made: 
United States, PA, Philadelphia
Accession Number: 
91.4.23
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 61 cm, W: 112.5 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
1990
Web Description: 
Until the 20th century, stained glass was used primarily for windows, usually in religious contexts. The tremendous public interest in stained glass during the early 1900s encouraged designers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany to expand its customary uses. In the late 1960s, a revival of American stained glass was sparked by renewed interest in the Art Nouveau style. Many artists began to experiment with two-dimensional glass. By the 1980s, the making of flat glass panels was no longer tied to architecture or to conventional materials. Judith Schaechter (b. 1961) uses the traditional stained glass techniques of cutting, staining, and layering for her narrative images. Her contemporary and sometimes disturbing subjects reflect events that, through the news media, have become commonplace in our lives, such as domestic violence and natural disasters. Schaechter’s Punk/Gothic style recalls the anxious yet beautiful figures of medieval art, as well as modern German Expressionist painting.

More Info

Department: 
Postwar and Contemporary
Provenance: 
Snyderman Gallery, Source
1991-04-02
Category: 
Contemporary
Studio Glass
Color: 
multicolored
Technique: 
engraving
cutting
sandblasting
assembling
painting
Material: 
glass
copper
Copyright: 
© Judith Schaechter

Description

Primary Description: 
Stained Glass, “Caught in a Flood.” Colored glass; cut, sandblasted, engraved, painted; assembled with copper foil. Horizontal format triptych comprised of two small vertical side panels flanking large center panel (almost square); overall polychrome scene of parts of six figures caught in turbulent blue-green water; two figures in left panel are plated over with colorless glass, whole figure dressed in amethyst shirt in right panel sits on painted wooden raft fragment, parts of tree branch extend from waves; deep wooden frame partially covered in gold foil; traced through enamel in lower right corner of central panel: "(copyright symbol) c/J.S. 1990".

Exhibitions (3)

The Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter's Stained-Glass Art
Venue(s)
Memorial Art Gallery of The University of Rochester 2020-02-15 through 2020-05-24
Toledo Museum of Art 2020-10-03 through 2021-01-03
Des Moines Art Center 2021-02-12 through 2021-05-23
The Path to Paradise is the first survey and major scholarly assessment of this groundbreaking artist’s 37-year career. Organized by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, the exhibition will be on view in Rochester from February 15 through May 24, 2020, after which it will travel to two additional venues in the United States. Drawn from both private and institutional collections, The Path to Paradise will feature approximately 45 of Judith Schaechter’s stained-glass panels along with a selection of related drawings and process materials. Judith Schaechter (b. 1961) has stretched the medium of stained glass into a potent and incisive art form for the 21st century, boldly paving her path in the diverse arena of contemporary art. Her work is represented in over a dozen museums including the Museum of Art and Design, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Toledo Museum of Art, and in major exhibitions around the world. In addition, through her extensive teaching, she has furthered her influence to her peers and younger generations of artists. Her awards include two NEA Visual Artists’ Fellowships, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship Award, a USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow, and an American Craft Council College of Fellows Award. Lead support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, with additional funding from the Gallery Council of the Memorial Art Gallery, Pamela Miller Ness and Paul Marc Ness, and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. The exhibition is also made possible by the Margaret Davis Friedlich and Alan and Sylvia Davis Memorial Fund, the John D. Greene Endowment for Contemporary Exhibitions, the Grant Holcomb Endowment, and the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Fund. The exhibition is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding has been provided by: Robert A. and Maureen S. Dobies Endowment Fund Irving and Essie Germanow Fund Kayser Fund Elizabeth and Eric Rennert Family Fund
Judith Schaechter: Heart Attacks
Venue(s)
Institute of Contemporary Art 1995-02-03 through 1995-04-16
 
Glassworks
Venue(s)
The Renwick Gallery 1990-10 through 1991-01

Publications (12)

The Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter's Stained-Glass Art (2020) illustrated, pp. 15, 78-79;
Contemporary Glass Sculptures and Panels: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass (2008) illustrated, p. 23, 126-127 (fig. 37, plate 39); BIB# 107478
Extra Virgin: The Stained Glass of Judith Schaechter (2006) illustrated, p. 47; BIB# 97786
The Corning Museum of Glass, A Guide to the Collections (2001) (2001) illustrated, p. 169; BIB# 68214
The Corning Museum of Glass: A Decade of Glass Collecting 1990-1999 (2000) illustrated, p. 82, #143; BIB# 65446
Judith Schaechter : Heart Attacks (1995) p. 18; BIB# 36150
Recent Important Acquisitions, 34 (1992) illustrated, p. 152, #61; BIB# AI30154
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass (1992) illustrated, p. 142, #147; BIB# 35679
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1991 (1992) p. 10; BIB# AI96378
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1991 (1992) p. 10; BIB# AI96378
New Glass Review, 12 (1990) p. 26, pl. 83;
Caught in a Flood (1990) illustrated BIB# 106278