contessanally: Venice: Caterina Tognon - Richard Meitner – And the Air Rushing Past

Caterina Tognon

Richard Meitner – And the Air Rushing Past

At the Caterina Tognon, vetro contemporaneo gallery the solo exhibition of Richard Meitner’s And the Air Rushing Past, until May, 5. Richard Meitner’s artistic practice has always traversed the thresholds between art and applied arts, sculpture and installation, science and poetry, usually defying any classification. His works made in glass are characterized witty and colorful, clever and ironic, representing eccentric-fantastic objects in relation with elements from the natural world, such as animal and plants. He is considered one of the Masters of the Glass Movement in Europe, where he has been living for more than 40 years.

http://www.caterinatognon.com/

Plunge
Amsterdam - 2000
blown borosilicate glass - pottery – wood

photograph R. Zijlstra – courtesy Caterina Tognon

Terrazzo 1
Amsterdam, 2018
fiberglass – glass – mica - etc-terrazzo technique

Inspired by his decades of experience working with blown glass, for this show Meitner has created a series of works that are immediately recognizable as related to the typical forms and movements of hot glass, but extend the shape and surface texture possibilities of this medium very greatly through the use of fibreglass. In these works, he also makes extensive use of terrazzo technique, a typical architectural-design element that is an integral part of the history of the city of Venice.

photograph and copyright by manfredi bellati

“If I want for example to deeply experience a work of art or a piece of music, I try to avoid reading what others may think about it, or what the artist or composer says it means, or what the artist’s younger years were like. Doing any of those things may perhaps make me feel more comfortable, sometimes even sympathetic, but will also unavoidably direct and limit what I hear and understand when I see the work or hear the music. Instead, I have discovered for myself that I can have a far more personal and richer experience when I simply stand in front of the work or listen to the music without preconceptions. And while I am doing that, I just try to pay very close attention to my own personal memories and the feelings evoked in me by the work, at times even by the air rushing past me...”.
Richard Meitner

And the Air Rushing Past is an exhibition Meitner initiated as an emotional sensory endeavor sensation, because for this artist, art is not about thinking, instead it is both made through - and for feeling and enchantment. 

Vessel with its Pet
Amsterdam – 2000
blown and enameled sodic glass – iron solution - oxidant