Glass art and objects are a recurring theme for the Preservation Society of Newport County this month. As the exhibition “Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light” enters its final weeks at Rosecliff, the Society has announced that it also will host a lecture by a renowned Yale University curator who will illuminate other facets of this variegated topic.
John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at Yale University Art Gallery, will present “Pressed, Cut, Molded, and Cracked: Stories in American Glass” on Thursday, February 13, at 6 p.m. at Rosecliff, according to the the Society. The talk will be followed by a book signing at 7 p.m.
According to the Society, “Gordon explores how glass, whether decorative or utilitarian, takes forms that often reflect technological innovations and social change. His lecture will draw on an insightful selection from the Yale University Art Gallery and other collections at Yale to illuminate the varied roles glass has played in the nation’s art and culture”.
Gordon’s book “American Glass: The Collections at Yale,” published by Yale University Press in 2018, tells the long and rich history of glass in America, from 18th-century mold-blown vessels to the luminous stained-glass windows of John La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, from an early Edison light bulb to contemporary sculpture and jewelry.
Admission to the lecture costs $10 for Preservation Society members and $15 for the general public.
For more information or to register, visit www.newportmansions.org/learn/adult-programs or call (401) 847-1000.
“Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light” is open through February 29 with admission to Rosecliff.
Other lectures in the Preservation Society’s Winter Lecture Series will include:
• Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6 p.m.: “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” – Connie Choi, associate curator for the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem.
• Thursday, Feb. 27, at noon: “Restoring Block Island’s Southeast Lighthouse” – Richard Ventrone, preservation architect with The Preservation Society of Newport County.
• Thursday, March 19, at noon: “Aquidneck Stone Wall Initiative: Preserving the Island’s Historic Character” – Leigh Schoberth, senior preservation services manager, Historic New England.