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Glass Sculpture

Glassmaking can be traced back to 3,500 BC in Mesopotamia. Glass blowing was practiced as early as 300 BC. In the 12th century, stained glass became popular in Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

Beginning in the 14th century, glass was produced in Murano, which became the center for Italian glassmaking. Advances in glassmaking and glass blowing continued into the 18th century when art and production were fused into a glass art form. This art was established by artists such as Emile Galle, Eugene Rousseau and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The 1960's and Modern Art opened up opportunities for glass artists and found the media acknowledged and included in art galleries and museums.

Glass Art can be divided into three categories:

Hot Glass - includes glass blowing, sculpting and molding; worked at a temperature of 2000˚
Warm Glass - includes slumping (heating glass sheet enough for it to bend over a mold - 1250˚ to 1400˚); fusing (heating glass enough that pieces melt together - 1400˚ to 1600˚); and flameworking or lampworking (glass rods are heated with a torch and bent similar to slumping)
Cold Glass - includes any process done to glass that is not hot such as glueing, grinding, etching, engraving, etc.

Alabastron (small jar for perfumes or unguents); 2nd–1st century BC; Hellenistic Cypriot Glass; H. 5 3/8 in.
(74.51.319) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/74.51.319. (October 2006)

examples of Murano millefiori glass

Les Andelys; church Notre Dame; stain glass; 16th century; Normandy

Dale Chihuly; The Sun; glass; 2005; Kew Gardens, London

The above images are in the public domain.

Some sites about glass art:
Bokrosh Studio: The Techniques Used for Creating Glass Art Sculpture
Holsten Galleries: About Glass Art
Bernard Katz: Types of Glass Art

Some sites about the history of glass art:
Seattle Glass Blowing: Glass History
Glass of Venice: Murano Glass History

Some artists who worked with glass:
Harvard: The Glass Flowers
Art Nouveau Around the World: Emile Galle
Stanislav Libensky / Jaroslava Brychtova

Some contemporary artists who work with glass:
Dale Chihuly
Bernard Katz
Scribol: 7 Incredible Art Sculptures
Luke Jerram
Morgan Glass Gallery
William Morris
David Patchen
Peter Newsome
Pino Signoretti