Sybren Valkema - Yellow Glass Sculpture

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Sybren Valkema (Dutch, 19161996), Yellow Glass Sculpture, 1968, cast glass, gift of Harvey K. Littleton, 68.15.5

What constitutes a portrait? Sybren Valkema’s Yellow Glass Sculpture lacks inherent facial features, yet we promptly perceive it as a human face. Perhaps instinct, driving us to hunt for physiognomy, compels us to embrace Valkema’s work as a portrait. Does including his artwork in this show on portraiture ultimately provide its classification? As participants in artistic discourse, we must challenge prescribed notions like Sybren Valkema and his Vrij Glas movement.

As the founder of Vrij Glas, Europe’s Free Glass Movement, Valkema strove to promote glass as an accepted visual arts medium. The Dutch artist’s efforts included introducing the revolutionary studio-sized furnace to Europe, organizing the first European exhibition of Vrij Glas, and establishing the glass art department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. In 1994, Sybren Valkema rightfully earned the Lifetime Achievement Award for working to create appreciation for the movement, altering the manner in which we view glass art today.

Daria Modrzanska

Catalogue
Sybren Valkema - Yellow Glass Sculpture