Rare, Restored Tiffany Stained Glass Windows Exhibited for the First Time in Montreal (Feb. 12 -

Jan. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- TIFFANY GLASS: A PASSION FOR COLOUR
THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
February 12 to May 2, 2010
(Featuring the largest Tiffany Studios commission in Canada)

Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and comprising roughly 180 works of art, Tiffany Glass: A Passion for Colour, on view in Montreal from February 12 to May 2, 2010, is the first exhibition of this magnitude to be presented in Canada on Louis C. Tiffany (1848-1933), one of America’s most influential decorative artists. Focusing on Tiffany’s remarkable contribution to the design and technology of glass, the exhibition will include a series of magnificent, large-scale, ecclesiastical stained glass windows; selections of secular stained glass; a wide range of unique glass vases in organic shapes; a series of signatures lamps decorated with wisteria, dragonflies and magnolias; some examples of paintings and mosaics, as well as original designs from the Tiffany studios and period photographs. The exhibition will travel to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (May 29 to August 15, 2010).

Included among the exhibition highlights is a large grouping of stained glass windows featuring 17 restored windows from a little-known series of 18 panels belonging to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on display for the first time. The exhibition will  also encompass  many outstanding loans, including one of Tiffany’s first stained glass windows from a group created for his apartment (Bella Apartment) in 1880, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; a stained glass window featuring magnolias that was presented at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, from the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, and a stained glass window, circa 1894, created after a design by Toulouse-Lautrec, from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Louis Comfort Tiffany’s painterly eye, sense of composition, love of glass, and flair for publicity made him a leader of American design with a reputation that extended throughout the great cities of Europe. His passion for the exotic and for rich ornamentation coupled with his fine craftsmanship and the distinctively abstract qualities of his colours and forms made him a central figure in many of the important art trends of the day including the Arts and Crafts and American Aesthetic, Art Nouveau, and Symbolism movements. Renowned for his mastery of colour and light, his fame grew to overshadow that of other American decorative artists and even rivalled that of late 19th-century European glassmakers.

Tiffany Glass: A Passion for Colour is produced in collaboration with the Musée du Luxembourg and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Included among the 40 lending institutions are the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (approximately 40 works); the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and the Musée des arts décoratifs, the Petit Palais, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The exhibition will also feature some never-before-exhibited works from private collections.


AN OUTSTANDING PIECE OF MONTREAL HERITAGE REDISCOVERED

One of the highlights of the exhibition is a set of monumental stained glass windows that were commissioned for the Erskine and American Church and are now part of the Museum’s collection. “Today, after being forgotten for more than a half-century, this exceptional part of Montreal’s heritage has been rediscovered. Before undertaking the reinstallation of these stained glass windows, I decided to use the opportunity to feature them in an exhibition,” said Nathalie Bondil, director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In the context of the Museum’s expansion and the restoration of the Erskine and American Church, the nave of which will become the Museum’s concert hall, the windows were taken down and restored. It is the biggest restoration project undertaken by the Museum in its 150-year-old history. Executed between 1897 and 1902, they belong to the heyday of the Tiffany Studios, when the virtuosity of glass-work reached its zenith. Today, after half a century of neglect, this important part of Montreal’s heritage, as the largest commission of works from the Tiffany Studios in Canada, has finally been rediscovered.


EXHIBITION THEMES

The exhibition will consist of six sections: the early career of Tiffany, the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of the famous house of Tiffany & Co. in New York, his sojourns in Europe, especially in Paris, where he studied painting in the studio of Léon-Charles Bailly, and his growing interest in the art of glass-making; his work as an interior decorator for influential American clients; his relationship with the Paris art dealer Siegfried Bing, who helped to publicize Tiffany products in Europe; his stained glass windows, an important but lesser known area of Tiffany’s output including the prestigious commissions he received and designers he employed; his “Favrile” glass with their organic shapes and striking colour contrasts; and the expansion of the Tiffany firm, including the production of the lamps that contributed to his enormous popularity, and other objects.

THE CURATORS

The exhibition was initiated by Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Rosalind Pepall, the Museum’s Senior Curator of Decorative Arts (Early and Modern), is the Chief Curator of the exhibition. The guest curators are the eminent specialists Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Martin Eidelberg, Emeritus Professor of Art History at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

SPONSORS

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ International Exhibition Programme receives financial support from the Exhibition Fund of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Foundation and the Paul G. Desmarais Fund.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts wishes to thank its media partners La Presse, The Gazette, Astral Media and Société Radio-Canada, as well as Air-Canada for their support. Its gratitude also goes to the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec for its ongoing support.

The Museum would like to thank the Volunteer Association of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for its loyal support. It would also like to thank all its members and the many individuals, companies and foundations who support its mission

PRESS INFORMATION

Canada:  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Public Relations
Catherine Guex, cguex@mbamtl.org, t. 514-285-1600.

United States: Cecilia Bonn Marketing and Communications
Cecilia Bonn, Cbonn@nyc.rr.com, t. 212-734-9754.


MUSEUM INFORMATION

Exhibition location: Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, Level 2
1380 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal Canada. Tel: 514-285-2000
Museum hours: Tues., 11 am to 5 pm, Wed. to Fri., 11 am to 9 pm,
Sat. and Sun., 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Mon. For more information, please visit www.mmfa.qc.ca.

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Cecilia Bonn Marketing and Communications is a full-service international public relations firm specializing in visual arts media relations, which represents clients including architecture firms, art foundations and galleries, universities, and museums.