Catalog of an exhibition held at the Art Museum at Florida International University. Essay by Cassandra Langer.https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/frostcatalogs/1013/thumbnail.jp

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Florida International UniversityFIU Digital CommonsFrost Art Museum Catalogs Frost Art Museum6-23-1989Ellen Jacobs: Metalwork and GlassThe Patricia and Phillip Frost Art MuseumThe Patricia and Phillip Frost Art MuseumFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/frostcatalogsThis work is brought to you for free and open access by the Frost Art Museum at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Frost ArtMuseum Catalogs by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact dcc@fiu.edu.Recommended CitationFrost Art Museum, The Patricia and Phillip, "Ellen Jacobs: Metalwork and Glass" (1989). Frost Art Museum Catalogs. Book 14.http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/frostcatalogs/14338u[fu@ &[f� 0¥ilQJ]@@QJ] DUiJAT FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITYEllen Jacobs:Metalwork and Glass Ellen Jacobs:Metawork and GlassEssay by Cassandra LangerJune 23-July 21, 1989The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami FloridaAcknoIIIIledgemenfs:The Art Museum at Florida International University is pleased to present the work of Ellen Jacobs.As part of our mission, we exhibit one of our own Visual Arts faculty annually. This has proved to bean enriching and intellectually challenging experience in the art community. In the case of Ms. Jacobs,her work in glass and metalwork represents a special place in our art program. These media are bothdemanding and quixotic, and this is Jacobs' first solo exhibition to be held at the Art Museum.The exhibition required the talents and support of a number of individuals. On behalf of theMuseum and myself, I would like to express my gratitude to William B. Humphreys, coordinator ofUniversity Collections, who participated in every aspect of the organization, planning, and publicationof the catalog and notices for this exhibition; and Ms. Karen Goodson, who dealt with the financialaspects and records of this exhibition. I thank too Ms. Eva Buttacavoli who so efficiently handled themyriad of details involved with correspondence and publications and the interns who assisted us.Special thanks are also due to Judith Stiehm, our provost and vice president for Academic Affairs:James Mau, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and William Maguire, chairman of the VisualArts Department.Final appreciation is reserved for the artist, Ellen Jacobs, whose work and shared conversationshave been a meaningful part of the experience for me.Special Acknowledgements:Florida International UniversityModesto A. MaidiquePresidentJudith StiehmProvost and Vice President,Academic AffairsPaul GallagherVice President,North Miami Campus & University ComputingRichard J. CorrentiVice President, Student AffairsLeonardo Rodriquez.Acting Vice President, Business & FinanceJamesMauDean, Arts and SciencesWilliam MaguireChairman, Visual Arts DepartmentToni BilbaoActing Vice President,University Relations & DevelopmentDahlia Morgan, DirectorArt Museum StaffDahlia MorganDirectorWilliam B. HumphreysCurator/Coordinator ofUniversity CollectionsKaren GoodsonAdministrative AssistantCatalog DesignTerry WitherellFlU PublicationsFunding for this exhibition and catalog wasprovided in part by the FlU Student GovernmentAssociation.ELLEN JACOBSAs elemental as earth, air, water, and fire, theorigins of glass are steeped in mystery andmyth. Its history as an art form remains cloudedand no one knows who discovered the firstcrude concepts. The fascination of the mediumis attested to by the many contemporaryglassblowers who have come to public andcritical attention in the last 20 years.Ellen Jacobs is a silversmith and glassblowerwith an enviable reputation in both creativefields. Graduating from the University ofChicago in 1951, she quickly pushed on tograduate work in painting, enameling, andceramics. In 1962, the prestigious Institute ofDesign of the Illinois Institute of Technologyawarded her a master's degree. She has donepostgraduate work at Haystack MountainSchool of Crafts, The School for American Craft­smen, Penland School of Crafts, and the Univer­sity of California-Berkeley. Jacobs' on-goingcommitment to excellence is attested to by hermany additional studies at the Art StudentsLeague, Greenwich House Pottery, New Schoolfor Social Research, and the Archie Bray Foun­dation. She has studied with an impressiveroster of teachers including such nationallyrenowned figures as Hans Christiansen, AddaHusted-Anderson, Herman Roth, Edwin Dicken­son, William King, Peter Voulkos, Karen Karnes,Robert Turner, Cynthia Bringle, Donna Nicholas,Norm Shulman, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly,Joel Myers, and Arnaldo Pomodoro. It is littlewonder with such training and exposure that theartist had a thriving career in New York Cityworking for internationally respected firms suchas Tiffany, Cartier, Georg Jensen, and AmericaHouse. A listing of her solo shows covers statesfrom New York to Alaska. Ellen Jacobs' workhas been exhibited in the Toledo Museum'sGlass National II. Since 1968, Jacobs' reputationhas grown, and she has gained increasingrecognition not only for her metalsmithing skills,but for her outstanding activity in glassblowingas well. In 1976, her glass was chosen for theG.A.S. Invitational-Corning Museum of Glass,and the museum saw fit to purchase a piece ofher work for its permanent collection. This is nosmall achievement in a field as competitive asglass has become in the last 15 years.After nine years as a successful artist jewelerin New York City, Jacobs decided to return toher first love - teaching. In 1969, she took aposition as an Assistant Professor in Wilkes­Barre, Pa. In 1972, she moved to Florida Interna­tional University where she is presently a pro­fessor teaching Glassblowing, Metalsmithing,History of Decorative Arts (metals, glass,ceramics, and fiber), and Pre-Columbian ArtHistory.Since 1984, she has had numerous spinaloperations; despite these physical disabilities,Jacob's has courageously continued to createnew work and exhibit nationally.Enduring personal acts are a kind of spirituallegacy, nowhere more concretely than in art. Avisual encounter with Ellen Jacobs' art is an im­mediate confrontation with the dynamics oflight. It takes a certain courage to work in amedium as seductive as glass. The temptationto be merely decorative and elegant in the ex­treme is always present, always at risk. As an ar­tist, Jacobs brings to her craft a sophisticationthat is enviable. Creating deceptively simple ob­[ects, she draws her inspiration from a vaststore of the history of art, particularly non­Western sources.As we well know, there is an amazing varietyof art objects that blend old and new techniques- traditional and modern forms to a happy ef­fect. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than inthe flowing, organic forms produced by EllenJacobs. Her love of Chinese jade carving,Japanese ceramic forms, and the intimate scaleof certain Meso-American ceremonial objects isfused with an appreciation of Expressionismand a sure knowledge of Sumi painting. Drawinginspiration from an ancient world of femalefigures, she makes forms which are an­drogynous and dualistic in nature. Althoughmany of the artist's pieces may be seen asderiving from a formalistic stance, it should beunderstood as one where abstract structure anddesign remain paramount. The artist is not in­terested in current styles e.g. pop or funk art.Her glass has never had the look of hard-edged. formalism; instead, Jacobs has concentratedher energies in producing rounded, flexible, andhumanistically scaled sculpture.There is a lunar sparkle to her earlier pieceswith their deep shadings and evocative colora­tions. Since her move to Florida, Jacobs' glasshas taken on a floral blossoming springing withreds, yellows, and silver overlays. Exotic colorsengage in an elegant play of tone and textureevoking rivers of blue and green swirlingthrough a landscape of light which molds theminto a lustrous beauty that emphasizes open­ness and change, flexibility and growth. This isthe essence of Jacobs' art.In her larger, more sculptural forms, the artistattempts to harmonize relationships through anelegant measured dialectic of thinness andthickness, letting the medium itself providechanges in color and tone. The subtle nuancesof refractive light passing through the purity ofthe glass mirrors a spirituality as symbolisticallypoetic as clear water itself.Earth, ai r, water, and fi re; aristocratic shapesfull of an ancient, mysterious, and evocotiveforce. These are the elements that are thedisciplined beauty and eloquent creative powerof Ellen Jacobs' art.Cassandra Langer, a veteran art critic, has published inArts Magazine, Art Criticism, American Artist, Art Journal,Ms. Magazine, and numerous other publications. She hasauthored many catalogues on subjects ranging fromRichard Aneszkiewicz to Deconstructing Luminism.Langer is currently finishing a bibliography of feminist artcriticism - and her co-authored anthology of feminist artcriticism recently won the 1989 Susan Koppelman Awardfor "the best anthology or edited feminist studies inpopular and/orAmerican culture." She formerly wasAssociate Professor and Chair at the Art Department ofSouth Carolina, and will be teaching at the School ofVisual Arts, New York City. Artist's StatementThe disciplines of blown and hot-formedglass and metalsmithing call for very differentapproaches. Hot glass is an immediate ex­perience, the time between conception andcompletion of the final form being fairly short.Metalsmithing is a very controlled, intricatelyplanned and worked process taking a muchlonger time relative to the degree of difficultyand complexity of the project. I treasure the op­portunity to change from one method of work­ing to the other.My sources of inspiration, however remote inthese two media are different. The glass hasbeen influenced by carved Chinese jade,Japanese Jomon ceramics, Expressionist andSumi painting, fauna, flora, and artifacts of landand sea. The metalwork has been inspired attimes by Pre-Columbian gold, Greek and Romanjewelry, Celtic art, Migration period jewelry, Vik­ing and modern Scandinavian metalwork, andthe mystery and power of prehistoric artifacts.Metalwork is approached both in working outformal deslqn problems or in the pursuit of aparticular process, e.g. mokume gane. It mayalso come from a particular object such as astone or glass that has personal associationalqualities, and which I wish to incorporate into awearable ornament. I have little interest in thecommercial monetary value of the materials thatI use, but rather in their form, color, workingqualities, and capacity for personal poetic ex­pression. My hollow ware is meant to be func­tional and my jewelry is meant to relate to thehuman body and be worn; not necessarily byeveryone, as individual differences in size,shape, and preferences would preclude this.In closing I would like to gratefullyacknowledge the help on this exhibit given byWilliam Humphreys, Dahlia Morgan, and themuseum staff. Ellen D. JacobsEducation:1962 M.S., Institute of Design, Illinois Institute ofTechnology1951 B.A., University of Chicago1951-1975 Additional studies; credit and non-credit: ArtInstitute of Chicago; School for AmericanCraftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology,Rochester, N.Y.; University of California­Berkeley; Haystack, Maine; Penland, NorthCarolina; Archie Bray Foundation, Montana; ArtStudents League, N.Y.C.; Craft StudentsLeague, N.Y.C.; New School for SocialResearch, N.Y.C.Experience:1972-1989 Florida International University, Assistant - FullProfessor1969-1972 Wilkes College, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., AssistantProfessor1960-1972 Jeweler, N.Y.C., Work commisioned by Tiffany,Cartier, Georg Jensen, etc.Exhibitions: (selected)SOLO SHOWS1989 The Art Museum, Florida InternationalUniversity, Miami1983 Artique, Ltd., Anchorage, Alaska1979 Grove House South, Miami (three-person)1972 The Wind Bell, Centerville, Delaware, (reviewedin Craft Horizons)1971 Wilkes College Gallery, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.1970 Wilkes College Gallery, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.1965 Anteroom, Anchorage, Alaska - jewelry1962 Ad Lib Gallery, Chicago - jewelry1956 Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago - jewelry andgraphicsGROUP SHOWS; (National)1987 Perfume Bottle Show, Heller Gallery, N.Y.C.1981-1986 "Glass on Holiday," Gazebo Gallery,Gatlinburg, Tn.1985 "Southern Studio Glass," Kingsport Fine ArtsCenter, Kingsport, Tn. Exhibit travelled 2 1/2years to museums in U.S. and Canada.1982 "Glass, A Gathering of Major Artists," NetskyGallery, Miami1980 "The Thirteen Collection," Sotheby ParkeBernet, N.Y.C.1980 Paperweight Show, Philadelphia ArtAlliance, Pa.1980 "New Glass; Update 1980," Craftsmen's Gallery,Scarsdale, N.Y.1980 "Women in Glass," Craftsmen's Gallery,Scarsdale, N.Y.1977 "New Glass," G.A.S. Invitational Show, CorningMuseum of Glass, Corning, N.Y.1976 Contemporary Art Glass, Lever House, N.Y.C.(reviewed Glass Art Magazine)1976 G.A.S.lnvitational, Corning Museum of Glass,Corning, N.Y. One piece purchased for museumcollection.1971 Annual Craft Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum,(mention in Craft Horizons)1970 "Crafts 1970," Institute of Contemporary Art,Boston City Hall, Ma.1968 Toledo Glass National II, Toledo Museum,Toledo, Oh. One piece toured two years withSmithsonian Travelling Exhibition.1954-1956 Chicago and Vicinity Artists Show, Art Instituteof ChicagoProfile, American Crafts, 1980Numerous regional and local shows, 1956-1988Museum CollectionsCorning Museum of Glass, Corning, N.Y.Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Instituition, NationalMuseum of Design, New York, N.Y.Not printed at state expense. lr[}u@ &[f� O\VAJQI]�@Ql]mmAT FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITYUniversity ParkMiami, Florida 33199(305) 554-2890

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