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Mary Shaffer
Draped Bar

1996

About the Item

This wall-mounted sculpture is from Mary Shaffer's well known "Tool Wall" series, combining slumped glass and a found metal object. "I take lovingly crafted, hand-forged tools - the epitome of American inventiveness - to preserve and pay tribute to activities and methods of working that have disappeared from our modern lives," says Shaffer. The glass and metal sculpture is available individually, as shown in the first three images, or as part of a "Tool Wall" grouping with four other sculptures, as shown in the fourth image. This "Tool Wall" installation of five works was selected for Sonoma Valley Museum of Art's exhibition "Pairings: 16 Artists Creatively Combined," which was on display from October 8, 2016 to December 30, 2016. Mary Shaffer has worked primarily in glass since the 1970s, and was an early artist in the American Studio Glass Movement. She invented a whole new way to work with and think about glass - a process she called "mid-air slumping." "The structural system I create allows the glass to move with fluidity and freedom you can't possibly envision or create with a mold," Shaffer explains. "Because I work with gravity, the strongest unknown force in the universe, I say I work with nature. I call this the 'female principle' in the Jungian sense; the idea of yielding and joining forces with nature, versus the 19th Century attitude of 'man over nature.' This is the fundamental philosophy behind my glass work." Shaffer has shown her work in over 60 museums worldwide, and her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Smithsonian in Washington DC, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, and the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, among many others. She has also taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Wellesley College, and New York University.
  • Creator:
    Mary Shaffer (1947, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1996
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 10 in (25.4 cm)Width: 4 in (10.16 cm)Depth: 14 in (35.56 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Glen Ellen, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU7122013073

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