Brooklyn-based artist and designer Niels Cosman’s centerpieces were made with the assistance of 24 glass artists and manage to combine loose organic form with carefully controlled process.
More than 250 works in glass will be going up for auction on Friday, October 12th, at the Westin Seattle as part of a black-tie fund-raising event that will support the educational and artistic programs at The Pilchuck Glass School for the 34th year running. In addition to the work up for live and silent bidding, there will be table centerpieces designed by Neils Cosman, who, alongside a team of 24 volunteer artists, created elegantly draped vessels that conjure up both ancient Roman glassware and the West Coast Funk movement that was a major influence in the early days of Studio Glass.
Lino Tagliapietra’s 2011 work, entitled Osaka, is the donated piece with the highest estimate of $51,000. It is just under 16-inches in height.
Available in print and online, the catalog of the auction items showcases 250 works for live and silent auction donated by a diverse group of established and emerging artists employing a variety of styles and techniques. The top estimate is for a work by Lino Tagliapietra (Osaka, 2011. H 15 3/4, W 11, D 10 3/4 in.) who is honored this year for his long and fruitful association with the Pilchuck Glass School, where he helped usher in a more precise Italian style of glassblowing when he started making regular appearances starting in 1979. Other eye-popping donations include Dale Chihuly’s Pine Green White Cylinder with Drawing (2012), which stands 13 inches tall and carries an estimate of $45,000, and Richard Royal’s Blue Stone (2012) from the artists’s “Geo” series, which is estimated at $28,000. There are also a few “Priceless” items that include a combination of artwork and experiences, such as John Kiley’s private studio party for 12 at his Ballard, Washington, studio, as well as one of his red-hot sculptures, in this case a 2011 work entitled Overlap.
Klaus Moje generously donated a word entitled Sketch for “Puget Sound,” a 2012 kiln-formed 22 1/2-inch panel with an estimate just shy of $30,000.
This year’s auction will include special posthumous recognition for longtime benefactor Jack Benaroya (1921 – 2012) and educator and Pilchuck pioneer Walt Haas (1925 – 2012), who hand-split the cedar shakes for the hotshop and guide to surviving the Northwest Coast climate. New for 2012 is the opportunity for live bidding on the silent auctions, a notable increase in the number of works donated by Australian artists, and the separate grouping of the “Goblet Project” works, which includes a $2,800 kilnformed work entitled Barbell / flip flop(2011) by Tyler MFA Anna Boothe that stands 11 inches tall and includes sculptural elements in addition to the time-honored drinking glass form.
Anna Boothe, Barbell / flip flop, 2011. Lead crystal, kiln-formed glass. H 11 in. Estimate: $2,800.
Other handblown goblets by more traditional practitioners are being offered for sub-$1,000 prices, including work by Hal Watrous, C. Chad Cully, and Joseph L. Schoenberger. The special focus on goblets is especially appropriate given auction honoree Tagliapietra’s spawning of a goblet fascination among U.S. glassblowers when he told his early students at Pilchuck that it was one of the hardest forms to blow and wonderful practice for anything else they wanted to do with Venetian glassblowing technique.
Tickets f0r the gala dinner and fundraising auction are available at a number of price points, starting with the lowest of $275 per person. The big event will kick off with a 5 PM cocktail party at The Westin Seattle, and will transition to a seated dinner at 7:15 PM. For more information or reservations please email reservations@pilchuck.com or call 206.621.8422, ext. 34. If you cannot attend in person, consider following along via the Internet, where you can bid online.
IF YOU GO:
The 34th Annual Pilchuck AuctionOctober 12th, 5 – 11 PMThe Westin Seattle1900 Fifth AvenueSeattle, Washington 98101Auction catalog and more information available on the event Website: http://pilchuck.com/events/auction_gala.aspx