Richard Marquis began experimenting in 1973 with what would become his signature form when, during a visit to Haystack in Maine, he blew his first murrine teapots. At first glance, the humble teapot may seem a peculiar choice for such a quirky, creative artist, but it turned out to be the ideal canvas on which he could apply his myriad interests. Marquis remarked on his choice:
At first glance, the humble teapot may seem a peculiar choice for such a quirky, creative artist...
Ken Price and Ron Nagle were using the cup as a basis for form, a place to start. People like Pete [Voulkos], Ron, and Ken didn’t touch the teapot because it was such a ceramics tradition. It was anathema. That baggage didn’t bother me because it was a non-tradition in glass. There are similar spouts to mine in German Waldglas forms and in the fifteenth-century Catalonian oil lamps…The teapot had more elements than any other form I could think of. It had a spout, a lid, a handle, plus the body. Just being able to play with all those parts, and it could still be recognizable even when you went to extremes.
His tea and coffee pots are often a riot of color, funk, and cartoon imagery masterfully combined with flawlessly executed techniques and form, resulting in the perfect balance of irreverence and tradition that is the hallmark of his body of work.
And to the extremes he went, with boldness and gusto. His tea and coffee pots are often a riot of color, funk, and cartoon imagery masterfully combined with flawlessly executed techniques and forms, resulting in the perfect balance of irreverence and tradition that is the hallmark of his body of work. Marquis reinvented the teapot throughout his career: from the Wizard Teapots begun in 1979 to the Teapot Goblets, Teapot Trophies, and Teapot Tripods, to his playful 2001 Zanfirico Snowman Teapot and his Crazy Quilt Teapot on Donuts of 2013. Many of his teapots became larger and more experimental over time, with Therman Statom remarking that Marquis was “like a scientist gone artist.” But it is his earliest teapots such as the Teariffic, complete with a cloth cover by his friend, seamstress Nirmal Kaur (a.k.a. Barbara Brittell), that hold perhaps the most importance within American studio glass’ history, as explained by artist Fritz Dreisbach:
Dick’s…teapots were real important…He varied the form and decoration; he did all those classic Italian techniques before anyone else knew how they were done. Chihuly…didn’t bring back techniques like Dick—they were in his head, maybe, but he didn’t promote them the way Dick did…no one knew about murrine…So Dick’s work was a big influence.
Be it a diminutive murrine teapot, an elegant Venetian-style Teapot Goblet, a monumental wizard-hatted teapot perched atop multi-color glass legs, or his equally delightful coffee pots, each and every one of Marquis's excursions into these humble forms is exemplary of the boundless creativity and technical know-how he brought to every aspect of his craft.
Take a walk through center city Philadelphia, you’ll find evidence of Jane Korman’s vision all around you: on Arch Street, the innovative textile studios and galleries at the Fabric Workshop and Museum will be abuzz with creativity, with thought-provoking exhibitions on view. On Walnut Street, you’ll pass the Jane & Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital—an initiative inspired by her own experience as a lung cancer patient who never took the ability to breathe for granted. Each November at the nearby Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show welcomes thousands of eager shoppers whose purchases support both the livelihoods of the artists displaying their work, and the Museum’s ability to acquire important works of contemporary craft. Korman was a longtime supporter and member of the Board of Directors of this annual event through the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she also served on the Modern and Contemporary Art Committee. And if you venture a bit further afield to the northwest corner of the city, you’ll reach the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where Korman was a Trustee and chair of the Fine Arts Committee. There, she spearheaded the creation of a permanent installation for children called Out on a Limb: A Tree Adventure Exhibit, complete with a nest of giant robin’s eggs and a Squirrel Scramble. It was designed as a fully accessible place for children and adults to explore and revel in nature, and to help them see that “we need trees, and trees need us.”
These efforts have something important in common...for Jane Korman, art, life and nature were not separate entities, but deeply intertwined facets of a life well lived.
These efforts have something important in common: breathing deeply and enjoying nature in every season, celebrating art and creativity in all its forms, and sharing the wonder of exquisite craftsmanship with the historic city she loved, all demonstrating that for Jane Korman, art, life and nature were not separate entities, but deeply intertwined facets of a life well lived. The diversity and exceptional quality of the works of art in this important sale speak to this sense of interconnectedness, and reflect her eye for idiosyncratic beauty and adventurous form. From the playful wit of Judy Kensley McKie’s furniture to the trompe-l'œil everyday objects created in clay by Marilyn Levine, Korman’s collection demonstrates reverence for material mastery, an appreciation for originality and non-traditional forms, and enjoyment of the unpretentious humor that animates craft’s whimsical side. It also offers proof of her artistic foresight: McKie’s Table With Dogs was featured in the American Craft Council’s exhibition New Handmade Furniture: American Furniture Makers Working in Hardwood back in 1979.
She believed that like food and nature, works of art, craft and design are part of our shared feast, and should be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.”
Korman was well known as a connoisseur and philanthropist, but she was also a gallery owner and published author. Her 2010 book Splendid Settings: The Art + Craft of Entertaining captured the spirit of her much-beloved collection. On the cover, a bouquet of peonies keeps company with a pair of elegant champagne flutes and three brilliantly glazed works by Toshiko Takaezu; this could only be Jane Korman’s table. Born in Philadelphia, she earned a BA in fine arts from Arcadia University, married Leonard Korman in 1957, and they raised three daughters together. In 1977, she established a gallery dedicated to contemporary American craft called Sign of the Swan in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. She later opened Swan Gallery near Rittenhouse Square, overseeing both spaces until 1989. Her passion for craft and expertise only grew as she became a trustee of the American Craft Council, and the Museum of Arts and Design, both located in New York, among other organizations. Splendid Settings explains how her varied passions overlapped: nearly 70 recipes, both her own and those shared from friends and artists, are presented against the vibrant backdrop of tables featuring Korman’s collections. She believed that like food and nature, works of art, craft and design are part of our shared feast, and should be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.”
To build a collection that encompasses works from such a wide array of genres, time periods, and materials suggests that Korman was inspired by something akin to artistic hospitality. Her collection includes quite a few greats: delicate vessels by George Ohr, vibrant and modern forms by Lucie Rie and Ruth Duckworth, and luminous Toots Zynsky bowls that seem to radiate color and light from their fused glass threads. Rudy Autio’s Blue Horse and Rider shows a woman clinging to the side of a vessel as though it were a wild steed, linking the two distinct forms of pottery and sculpture as though they couldn’t live without one another. Also striking is the number of works obtained directly from the artist, or even commissioned specifically for the Kormans, like Wendell Castle’s sculptural sets of dining tables and chairs.
Jane Korman admired beauty, but didn’t insist on a narrow definition of it.
Jane Korman admired beauty, but didn’t insist on a narrow definition of it. She felt a kinship with artists, being one herself, and understood them through a shared language. Many of the works in her collection are straightforwardly lovely, like Wayne Higby’s serene Landscape Bowl from 1980 or Harvey Littleton’s nearly-edible Ruby Sliced Descending Form from 1985. Others possess a kind of rugged beauty that can only be truly appreciated with an understanding of artistic intent and preternatural skill. Observers might have glanced at Marilyn Levine’s 1984 KCP Bag and seen an ordinary useful object—sturdy, but worn a bit past its prime. Jane Korman saw Levine’s artistic devotion to capturing the contours and details of a personal item freighted with meaning, something that deserved to be realized through careful attention and virtuosic skill. Like nature, artistic inspiration takes infinite forms, and what strikes most people as traditionally beautiful represents just a narrow band of human creative endeavor. As long as a work of art was a triumph of technique, keenly observed, and authentically inspired, it was welcome at Jane Korman’s table.
Sarah Archer is a design writer based in Philadelphia who has authored several books and contributed essays to exhibition catalogs for the Print Center New York, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Portland Art Museum, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design. She served as senior curator at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from 2011 through 2014 and was the 2017 Jentel Visiting Critic at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana.
Richard Marquis b. 1945
Richard Marquis is a world-renowned American studio glass artist and a pioneer of American contemporary glass art. He was born in the small town of Bumble Bee, Arizona and began his lifelong absorption with collecting found and scavenged objects in categories (cigar bands, bottle caps) as a child. He also engaged in building hobby models.
Marquis attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied ceramics and glass. In 1969, he was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to study at the Venini Factory in Murano, Italy. There, he learned the traditional Venetian techniques of caning and murrine, which involve creating colored glass rods or chips that are fused together to create intricate patterns. After returning to the United States, Marquis began to incorporate these techniques into his own work. His early pieces were often small, colorful sculptures that explored the possibilities of murrine. In the 1980s, he began to experiment with larger-scale works, such as his "Marquiscarpa" series, which are inspired by the work of the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa.
Marquis's work is often playful and humorous, but it also has a serious underlying aesthetic. A self-described “color junkie,” he is a master of color and form, and his work is characterized by its flawless technique and attention to detail. He is also a skilled draftsman, and his drawings often serve as the basis for his glass sculptures. Far from a traditionalist, Marquis pushes the boundaries of his art and creativity, often incorporating found objects into his creations that imbue them with narratives or comment on pop culture references.
Marquis has exhibited his glass extensively throughout the United States and Europe and has received numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from both the Glass Art Society and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, and the James Renwick Alliance Masters of the Medium Award. His work is included in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In addition to his prolific body of work, Marquis has served as a mentor to many young glass artists. He is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of American studio glass.
Auction Results Richard Marquis
