Time highlights Wolverhampton/China Glass Art links
Aug 31st, 2007 by admin
In 1996, two academics from the school of Art & Design at the went to China to forge links with educational institutions. While they were there, they fell into a discussion with Shanghai University Professor Wang Dawei about glass art — one of the key subjects offered at Wolverhampton.
It quickly emerged that the subject was not taught at all in China's fine-art institutions, even though the country produced a staggering 80% of the world's processed glass. Wang resolved to do something about it, and in 2000 Shanghai University's glass studio was launched. It was headed by Zhuang Xiaowei, who had just returned from a two-year M.A. at Wolverhampton. That same year, another professor, Wang Jianzhong, set up undergraduate and graduate glass programs at Beijing's Tsinghua University, with Wolverhampton's assistance. Together, these two courses and their graduates formed the roots of Chinese contemporary glass art. It is starting to flower today as one of the most exciting genres in the world's fastest-growing arts scene.
Admittedly, China's new wave of glass artists toil far below the stratospheric heights attained by the country's painters, who have witnessed an estimated eightfold increase in the market for their works during the past two years. But the glass artists are every bit as bold and experimental, and equally capable of referencing international trends while retaining distinctly Chinese characteristics. "Our traditions are different from those in other parts of the world," says Beijing-based artist Guan Donghai, referring to the Chinese preference for casting glass instead of blowing it. "They give our glass a typical Chinese style." This is visible in Guan's own work, where elegant kiln-cast sculptures recall the primal forms of William Morris but represent specifically Chinese objects such as swords and ancient city gates. The meditative works of Zhuang Xiaowei — the Shanghai pioneer — explore space and form in the manner of Barbara Hepworth or Henry Moore, but they are invariably infused with Chinese symbolism: a transparent cast-glass flute imbued with royal-blue pâte de verre forms a beautiful allusion to China's traditions in ink, for instance. Zhuang's former student Wang Qin also draws on calligraphy, creating three-dimensional "brush strokes" in glass.
The full article can be viewed via