Norty

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Norty

Artist Hank Murta Adams American, born 1956

Date1988

DimensionsH: 28 1/8 in. (71.4 cm); W: 22 3/4 in. (57.8 cm); Depth: 17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm)

MediumCast glass, copper, and found objects (inc. marbles, painted wire screen, and spool).

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Dorothy and George Saxe

Object number

1993.1

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, 1

Collections

Glass

Exhibition HistoryChicago, Navy Pier, Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition, (exh. cat.).

Sheboygan, Wisconsin, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Perspectives: Hank Murta Adams, (exh. Cat., ill.).

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. 1, p. 20, cat. no. 1, p. 191.

Label TextHank Murta Adams’ sculpture appears aged and corroded, like an ancient, barnacle-covered bronze bust brought up from the ocean floor. The pitted surface of the cast glass figure is embedded with bits of metal, hinting at a painful melding of humanity and technology. Adams, who leaves much of the sculpture’s appearance to the chance of the casting process, creates imaginary characters with which he explores issues of politics, health, social isolation, and humanity’s relationship with nature and industry. The glass figures seem to trap light inside them, a quality that adds to their ethereal presence, despite their massive form. As Adams explains, “The slight translucency of glass gives the pieces a spirit, makes them alive, moody.”