Insert myself within your story

Title: 
Insert myself within your story

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Object Name: 
Sculpture
Title: 
Insert myself within your story
Maker(s): 
Place Made: 
United States, CA, Oakland
United States, NY, New York City
Accession Number: 
82.4.19
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 46.1 cm, W: 35.5 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
1979-1981
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
Web Description: 
During an artist residency at the University of California in Berkeley, Christopher Wilmarth visited the glass studio of the nearby California College of Arts and Crafts, headed by Marvin Lipofsky (whose sculpture is also displayed in this gallery). Working with Lipofsky’s glassblowing students, Wilmarth began making a series of blown glass and metal sculptures that he titled "Breath." For him, blown glass symbolized frozen breath. It was a material that made breath visible. Wilmarth wrote about this series: "I have tried to make sculptures that evoke a spiritual disembodied state close to that of reverie, the kind of perfection I have found during my revelations or epiphanies. Understanding Mallarme was an epiphany in that I found myself in his poems." The writer Wilmarth refers to is the French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarme (1842–1898).

More Info

Department: 
Postwar and Contemporary
Series: 
Breath
Provenance: 
Wilmarth, Christopher (American, 1943-1987), Source
1982-05-06
Color: 
(a) Pale green; (b) bronze
Technique: 
Blown, acid-etched glass; patinated bronze

Description

Primary Description: 
(a) Pale green transparent glass; blown with additional partial gather; acid etched, polished. Ovoid head shape pressed in on side with partial gather; thread from partial gather overlaps single gather portion; irregular acid etching over entire surface; rough polished base with oval hole into interior; rough pontil on top; unsigned. (b) Bronze; cut, dripped, patinated. Thin, rectangular form with semi-oval section cut away through half thickness from lower right hand portion of the panel; dripped bronze beading on left side and along bottom of top edge; hold through panel near top center and large hole near bottom center of semi-oval cut away section; metal peg enters panel above this larger hole and is used for hanging (a) onto (b); patinated surface; unsigned. Four screws, four cut-off nails, three plastic and one metal anchors, two toggles and mounting instructions accompany the sculpture.

Exhibitions (1)

Breath: Christopher Wilmarth
Venue(s)
Studio for the First Amendment 1982 through 1982

Publications (8)

Casting Poetic Sentiment: Glass Art Creation Methodology (2008) illustrated, p. 232, fig. 292; BIB# 107146
Contemporary Glass Sculptures and Panels: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass (2008) illustrated, p. 28, 88-89 (fig. 50, plate 20); BIB# 107478
Jurors' Choice (2007) illustrated, p. 92; BIB# AI75161
Contemporary Glass: A World Survey from The Corning Museum of Glass (1989) illustrated, p. 242; BIB# 32803
Thirty Years of New Glass, 1957-1987, from the Collection of the Corning Museum of Glass (1987) p. 5; BIB# 2318
Recent Important Acquisitions, 25 (1983) illustrated, p. 274, #55; BIB# AI98084
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1982 (1983) p. 7; BIB# AI97140
Breath (1982) 95 p.; BIB# 22041