To approach glass by direct carving, as is usual in the sculpture of stone, marble or wood, was for many years impossible. Sculpting cold glass or crystal is a recent technique, not feasible before the technological advances of the XXth century, and derives on one hand from carving with grindstones, and on the other hand from sandblasting. As for carving, certain glassworkers are currently using enormous grinding wheels, diamond saws, or even hammers and burins. Others practice sandblasting using a sandblaster supplied with a very fine abrasive material called corundum (aluminum oxide) which has all but replaced these days the traditional use of sand. Glassmakers have at their disposal pressurized nozzles of sand and air to tackle the material. For larger pieces, the sculptor must enter into a sealed booth wearing a protective air-fed suit and gloves.

The pioneer of sculpted glass remains the French master glassworker Aristide Colotte (1885-1959). In 1929 he perfected a new personalized technique, a synthesis of glassworking and metalworking techniques, utilizing the crystal carver’s wheel and the metal engraver’s burin, as well as a wheel mounted on a flexible support, much like a dentist’s burr. With this innovative process he could carve deep grooves into the thick walls of his massive crystal vases using a wheel, and finish his work with the aid of a burin, dividing the material into fragments. He also applied this technique to the sculpting of crucible dregs which he salvaged from the crystal works of Lorraine. Taking cold glass and branding it with his powerful aesthetic, he created for the first time in the history of glassmaking, works of sculpture in the round. In the 1970’s and 80’s during a resurgence of interest in glass, young artists began to take a new look at this material, noticing its specific sculptural appeal, linked to light and transparency. the Austrian artist Jutta Cuny, trained as a painter and sculptor, began to sculpt glass by sandblasting in 1976. The direct approach to glass sculpture demands intense physical involvement with the material and gestures that leave no room for error. In the course of a rapid rise to fame, Cuny produced a very expressive body of work in which organic shapes, creases, and frosted haze metamorphose, unfold and disintegrate inside the transparent walls of industrial glass slabs. In contrast to the refined work inspired by abstractionism, the Polish artist Czeslaw Zuber’s approach to glass is iconoclastic: smashing and shattering blocks of optic glass with hammers and burins, then embellishing them with raw painted colors; giving rise to a universe populated by grimacing heads influenced by the return of expressionism.

The artist of Romanian descent, Matei Negreanu, made his debut in the 1980’s with lyrical pieces constructed with sheets of window glass that are stacked, glued, then sculpted by sandblasting, evoking wings and waves. The next decade would see the birth of violent sculptures where rough blocks of optic glass are cut and slashed with diamond saws, hammers and burins, before being embellished with paint or lead leaf. Let us also not fail to mention the sandblasted work of France’s Gilles Chabriet.

MAZET Mireille, “A. COLOTTE, sculpteur sur verre et sur cristal”, Editions de l’Amateur, Paris, 1994 Monographies des artistes RICKE Helmut, “Neues Glas in Europa”, Verlaganstalt handwerk, Düsseldorf, 1990