The Body in Glass

Gift of the Anna and Joe Mendel Collection to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

"Two-heart Woman" Vase

An exceptional gift of one hundred glass sculptures recently enriched the Museum’s Department of Decorative Arts, thanks to the generosity of Anna and Joe Mendel, long-standing friends of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Drawn to glass by its intrinsic properties and expressive potential, these collectors wished to share their enthusiasm for the Studio Glass Movement with Museum visitors. The Mendel Collection is the only one of its kind in Canada, ranking with those of the leading American connoisseurs who have made glass their passion.

A first selection of nineteen artworks from the Mendel Collection, The Body in Glass, will be presented in a new gallery within the Museum’s permanent collection. It deals with the human figure – an inexhaustible subject, fraught with emotion and questions about existence. The Museum is the only place in Montreal – and in Quebec – where visitors can see glass sculptures created by artists from around the world. Like the Museum's permanent collection, admission to this collection is free of charge at all times.

In The Body in Glass, this theme’s many facets are revealed through the artifices of the portrait, the nude and body fragments. Martin Blank evokes the forms of the classical nude with a twisting body, while the outstretched hands of Kent Ipsen seem to implore us. With Dan Dailey, the figure sometimes takes on a humorous bearing. The scenes composed by Judith Schaechter and Robin Grebe invite us to complement the story in light of our emotional, cultural and social baggage. The twins of Sibylle Peretti and Stephen Paul Day, Seth Randal’s interpretation of Janus, Susan Edgerley’s doll and Jay Musler’s mask lead us into the realm of metaphor and archetype. And finally, the engagé bodies by Bertil Vallien and Clifford Rainey challenge us with their reference to the complexities of human nature.

Art patrons Anna and Joe Mendel have had a decisive impact on Canadian creation. For the past twenty years, these Montreal collectors have built up a collection featuring works by the major international schools. Their generous gift will also enable the Museum to invite an internationally renowned glass artist to the Museum each year, from 2008 to 2018, to give a public lecture, thus enriching the Museum’s educational and cultural programme.

Since the 1980s, art glass has taken its rightful place among contemporary art movements. In addition to strictly technical concerns, art glassmakers are interested in the question of content: consequently, narrative, the social identity of the female or male gender and other issues with social implications have formed an integral part of their creations. With this fresh impetus, glass has ceased to be considered a purely domestic, utilitarian object and could be regarded as sculpture. 

Anna and Joe Mendel have been fervent collectors of art glass since the 1980s. They have always been particularly interested in the artists of the Studio Glass Movement, a school that emerged in the United States in 1962, when Harvey Littleton had the idea of building kilns that could be used in studios, thus freeing artists from the need to have their designs made into a sculpture in a glass factory.  The Mendel Collection consists primarily of works executed since the 1980s in which sculpture predominates. The subject of the work plays an important part in the choice of acquisitions, but the technique is equally important, as the skill of the artists represented makes clear. The collection contains examples of the major international schools, mainly those of the United States and the Czech Republic.

The Mendels are also strong supporters of Canadian art glass, not only purchasing works but also acting as generous patrons. The HOUDÉ-MENDEL Bursary is awarded twice a year to a student who has completed the College Studies Diploma (CSD) at Espace VERRE, Montreal. The bursary includes free use of the HOUDÉ-MENDEL kiln for six months.

 

Free Free Admission
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion
Level 1

 

Dan Dailey; Born in Philadelphia in 1947; "Two-heart Woman" Vase; From the series "Face Vases"; 1991; Blown glass, sandblasted surface drawing, acid polished, vitreous enamel; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gift, Anna and Joe Mendel Collection; Photo Bill Truslow