Beauty as Drama #141-52

Artist Ginny Ruffner (American, born 1952)

Date1990

Dimensions13 x 10 1/2 x 13 in. (33 x 26.6 x 33 cm)

MediumFlame-worked glass, Prismacolor® pencils, oil paint, Krylon® fixatif

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William Block

Object number

1996.7

Not on View

Label TextDuring 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.Published ReferencesKangas, Matthew, "Unraveling Ruffner," Glass, no. 43, Spring 1991, p. 28.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 61, repr. (col.).

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 209, repr. (col.).

Page, Jutta-Annette, Peter Morrin, and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, OH, 2012, p. 67, repr. (col.) p. 68, pl. 35, detail p. 69.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Heller Gallery, Ginny Ruffner: Curious Phenomena and Outrageous Observations, November, 1990.

Pittsburgh (PA), Carnegie Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art, Contemporary Directions: Glass from the Maxine and William Block Collection, 2002-2004, p. 76, repr. (col.) p. 56.

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

Comparative ReferencesSee also Miller, Bonnie J., Why Not? The Art of Ginny Ruffner, Tacoma, 1985. Cf. Marks, Ben, "Field of Dreams," AMERICAN CRAFT, vol. 50, no. 3, June/July 1990, pp. 46-49.