Radio Light

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Radio Light

Artist Paul Seide American, born 1949

Date1985

DimensionsH: 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm); W: 16 3/4 in. (42.5 cm); Depth: 18 1/2 in. (47 cm)

MediumBlown glass, mercury, and argon gas.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Dorothy and George Saxe

Object number

1991.135A-B

Not on View

Collections

Glass

Published ReferencesPage, Jutta-Annette, Peter Morrin, and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, OH, 2012, cover, back cover (det.), p. 142, repr. (col.) p. 144, pl. 83.Exhibition HistoryOakland, CA, The Oakland Museum, Contemporary American and European Glass from the Saxe Collection, 1986, (exh. cat., p. 57, ill.) (traveled to New York, American Craft Museum).

Toledo Museum of Art; The Saint Louis Art Museum; Newport Beach, California, Newport Harbor Art Museum; Washington, D.C., Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art Smithsonian Institution, Contemporary Crafts and the Saxe Collection, 1993-1995, pl. 49, p. 77, cat. no. 92, p. 205.

Toledo Museum of Art, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, June 14-September 9, 2012.

Label TextRadio Light’s looping tubes of blown colored glass are filled with mercury and argon gas. The sculpture uses a specially designed radio transmitter to activate the gas. The glass is placed on antenna plates that are connected to the radio transmitter by wires. Both the radio and glass need to be tuned to achieve the maximum frequency of radio waves to excite the molecules of the gas, making the work light up and glow.