Sam Herman 1936 - 2020
Sam Herman鈥檚 magical creations in glass are the tangible product of a creative spirit, a philosophy, and a crusading energy that place him at the very centre of the story of contemporary studio glass.
Frestonian Gallery presents a memorial exhibition reflecting on, and celebrating, the extraordinary life and work of Sam Herman. His legacy stands as Britain鈥檚 most pioneering and celebrated glass artist; and as a vital figure in the development of British Modernism throughout the transformative era of the 1960s and far beyond.
In recent years, the previously established hierarchy of artistic media 鈥� with painting and sculpture seen as the most legitimate expressions of 鈥榟igh art鈥� and all other mediums thereafter in a sliding scale downwards towards 鈥榗raft鈥� has thankfully been eroded, if not entirely exploded. Now, one is as likely to visit a museum or gallery and see centre stage given to, for example, the textile works of Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois or Sheila Hicks; or the ceramics of Grayson Perry or Magdalene Odundo. When Herman arrived at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1965, working across the hall from his colleagues Hans Coper and Eduardo Paolozzi, he would not have realised quite how major a part he would play alongside them in this shift of understanding towards a non-hierarchical appreciation of materials.
That same year, Herman built the first 鈥榮mall tank furnace鈥� in the UK, a moment that would change the course of British glass art forevermore. This furnace, along with the tools needed to work with it, that Herman had helped to devise and innovate under Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin three years before, now made it possible for British glass artists and designers to work directly with molten glass. This immediately freed self-expression, one of the central aims of what soon became known as the 鈥楽tudio Glass Movement鈥�. How this movement changed glass art, might be most readily compared to how the invention of oil paint transformed painting, with Herman arguably its greatest international proponent.
Recommended for you
Sam Herman鈥檚 magical creations in glass are the tangible product of a creative spirit, a philosophy, and a crusading energy that place him at the very centre of the story of contemporary studio glass.
Frestonian Gallery presents a memorial exhibition reflecting on, and celebrating, the extraordinary life and work of Sam Herman. His legacy stands as Britain鈥檚 most pioneering and celebrated glass artist; and as a vital figure in the development of British Modernism throughout the transformative era of the 1960s and far beyond.
In recent years, the previously established hierarchy of artistic media 鈥� with painting and sculpture seen as the most legitimate expressions of 鈥榟igh art鈥� and all other mediums thereafter in a sliding scale downwards towards 鈥榗raft鈥� has thankfully been eroded, if not entirely exploded. Now, one is as likely to visit a museum or gallery and see centre stage given to, for example, the textile works of Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois or Sheila Hicks; or the ceramics of Grayson Perry or Magdalene Odundo. When Herman arrived at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1965, working across the hall from his colleagues Hans Coper and Eduardo Paolozzi, he would not have realised quite how major a part he would play alongside them in this shift of understanding towards a non-hierarchical appreciation of materials.
That same year, Herman built the first 鈥榮mall tank furnace鈥� in the UK, a moment that would change the course of British glass art forevermore. This furnace, along with the tools needed to work with it, that Herman had helped to devise and innovate under Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin three years before, now made it possible for British glass artists and designers to work directly with molten glass. This immediately freed self-expression, one of the central aims of what soon became known as the 鈥楽tudio Glass Movement鈥�. How this movement changed glass art, might be most readily compared to how the invention of oil paint transformed painting, with Herman arguably its greatest international proponent.
Artists on show
