Richard Marquis | In Motion
American modern glass artist Richard Marquis has for decades created work that combines his passions for glass and transportation. Marquis was one of the first Americans to ever to work in a Venetian glass factory, becoming a master of the murrine technique that uses canes of colored glass to create complex patterns. He was a pioneer during the American Studio Glass movement, which focused on sculptural work by artists rather than mass produced functional tableware or lighting.
For In Motion, R & Company presents an exhibition of land and sea vehicle-themed glass work created by Marquis. There’s also development sketches and pieces from his reference archives. The exhibition highlights his fascination with speed forms and the complex dazzle camouflage patterns on WW1 ships.
Two favorites are the bullet-shaped Mirrored LSR Cars inspired by land speed record competitors from the Bluebird, Goldenrod and Sunbeam era. The patterned glass reads almost like an aerodynamic drag coefficient study.
Full Description
For much of his life, Richard Marquis has been fascinated by vehicles and machines. At an early age, he began building and restoring cars and later started collecting exceptional models. Marquis was also interested in racing motorcycles and researching land speed record (LSR) vehicles, known for their wildly aerodynamic designs. His love for transportation further extends to boats and dazzle camouflage ships, mainly used during World War I and painted with dizzying geometric patterns meant not to conceal but to confuse. As one of the preeminent glass artists in America, Marquis translated his passion for speed and motion into extraordinary studies on form, movement, and scale. This exhibition captures Marquis’s different-and near-obsessive-explorations of shape and color in glass inspired by his engagement with transportation.
In 1969, Marquis was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and secured a position at the Venini Factory in Murano. There, he learned traditional Venetian glass techniques, such as making murrine and millefiori. Since then, powered by an incredible mastery of the medium, Marquis has experimented and pushed glass in new and unexpected directions. The works presented here, created over the past twenty years, showcase an unabashed combination of flamboyance and restraint, humor and thoughtfulness. These dualities and wide-ranging sensibilities are reflected throughout Marquis’s oeuvre, balancing the elevated and the everyday to build objects with multi-faceted interpretations. In Motion offers a vivid glimpse into Marquis’s inventive spirit, where his curiosity for movement converges with his remarkable ability to transform glass into art with narrative and meaning.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter
Description Text: R & Company, NYC
