Beauty as Drama #141-52
Artist: Ginny Ruffner (American, born 1952)
Date: 1990
Dimensions:
13 x 10 1/2 x 13 in. (33 x 26.6 x 33 cm)
Medium: Flame-worked glass, Prismacolor® pencils, oil paint, Krylon® fixatif
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Block
Object number: 1996.7
Label Text:During the 1980s, Ginny Ruffner emerged as a leader in the national glass community, making flameworking (heating glass over a flame or lamp, then shaping it with tools) her technique of choice. In 1985 she first applied oil paints to her glass, thereby creating her signature style, as seen in her “beauty series.” Ruffner explains, “I have an ongoing fascination with the concept of beauty, both as an artist and as a female. What is beauty? What makes something beautiful?” Her winged, headless female figures representing Beauty are based on the ancient Greek sculpture the Victory (Nike) of Samothrace in the Louvre. Their wings signify the transcendence of art as a flight of imagination. The painted Comedy and Tragedy masks introduce the role of beauty in theatrical drama.
Not on view
In Collection(s)