Visitors lucky enough to view two connected exhibitions at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Art at the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts will find themselves in awe of works by two renowned glass artists from differ- ent time periods. One of the exhibits showcases selected works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose innovative, recognizable glass artwork was created for the most part between 1880 and 1933. “Tiffany’s Gardens in Glass,” curated by the New York- based Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, is small in size but it offers an elegant presentation of lamps and window glass, all inspired by nature.
Fast forward a hundred years, and marvel again at another small but exquisite show, “Gilded Echoes: The Tiffany Influence in Josh Simpson’s Glasswork.” The exhibits are paired, an inspiration of Heather Haskell- Burns, Vice President and Director of the Art Museums, because of the artistic connection between the two glass artists, working in different times, whose love of glass art and nature is significant in their work. As she put it, “The exhibitions beautifully celebrate two visionary glass artists, bridging the timeless elegance of Tiffany’s work with Simpson’s modern brilliance.”
Tiffany was a visual artist whose design work was inspired by the world around him. He and the various skilled artisans he hired loved the colors and forms found in nature and sought to translate these elements into glass lamps and windows. To that end he maintained extensive greenhouses, formal gardens, water gardens and a hanging garden at his country estate in Long Island, New York.
The preparation for the beautiful glass art was labor intensive and required many steps, but it resulted in works that added to the world of art in ways that were novel and proudly showcased in the elegant homes of the wealthy, museums and galleries. Tiffany said of his work, “God has given us our talents, not to copy the talents of others, but rather to use our brains and imagination in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.”