The Walter Scott Lenox Pavilion and The Vivienne and Stanley H. Katz Gallery
Unexpected Color: A Journey Through Glass features the Thomas N. Armstrong III Collection of Steuben Glass, recently donated to the Newark Museum. The exhibition offers a window into the science, craft, and art of this lesser-known, colorful glass that was made and used by two visionaries. Frederick Carder, co-founder and designer of Steuben Glass Works, and Thomas N. Armstrong III, prominent museum director, loved color, organic forms, and art. Discover how Carder experimented with glassblowing techniques to create vibrant jewel-toned colors in glass. Follow that glass through multiple settings as Armstrong collected and used the vibrant bowls, vases, and candlesticks in his homes, in a variety of traditional and contemporary settings.
With more than 130 works highlighting Frederick Carder’s experimentation and designs from 1903-1933, the exhibition showcases his colorful glass and its functional and artistic use in the Armstrong homes. Ancient Roman, Chinese, and Art Nouveau glass inspired Carder and examples can be found throughout the Newark Museum galleries, providing an historic and global context for the Steuben glass. Images from the Armstrong homes reveal how the colorful glass was, and can be, integrated with traditional and contemporary architecture, art and interiors. Unexpected Color offers a journey of discovery about how art and glass can be found everywhere and in the everyday details of our homes as well as in the sparkling, vibrant Steuben glass in the exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by the Newark Museum and is curated by Stephen Milne, Guest Curator and Exhibition Design Advisor, and Amy Simon Hopwood, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum.
All objects credited as, unless noted: The Thomas N. Armstrong III Collection, Gift of the Thomas N. Armstrong Family, 2018
