New Ninth #2

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New Ninth #2

Artist Christopher Wilmarth American, 1943-1987

Date1981

DimensionsH: 38 1/4 in. (97.2 cm); W: 31 7/8 in. (81 cm); Depth: 7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm)

MediumPlate glass, steel.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1982.1

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Published ReferencesPage, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 222, repr. (col.) p. 223.Label Text"Light gains character as it touches the world, from what is lighted and who is there to see . . . My sculptures are places to generate this experience compressed into light and shadow and return them to the world as a physical poem." New Ninth #2 has a visual impact of extreme delicacy. By brushing acid on glass, Wilmarth has etched a soft, irregular, painterly surface. Changes in light, as well as movement of the viewer, yield a range of greens in this normally reflective material, with its transparency now clouded while its translucency has been preserved. The dark, unpolished steel plate behind the glass acts both as physical support and dynamic contrast. Bent back at the top, the heavy metal dominates where it touches the fragile and luminous glass, which rests on a small lip at the bottom. Steel cable serves a similar dual purpose. Binding the two hard materials together, the cable becomes a form of drawing that both defies and reveals the pull of gravity.