A.D. Copier & Lino Tagliapietra: Magic art glass from Murano
What’s in a name…? Andries Dirk Copier (1901–1991) is, without a doubt, the most important Dutch glass artist from the twentieth century. As head designer of the Leerdam Glassworks (N.V. Glasfabriek Leerdam), he distinguished himself in the roaring twenties with innovative designs and techniques. Following his retirement, he began an international adventure as an autonomous artist when he was already eighty years old. He travelled through Europe and to the United States to work with the best foreign glassblowers. With Lino Tagliapietra (1936) in Murano, magic happened, pinnacling in their Filigrane Interferenti.
New Insights
In 1981, the eighty-year-old designer applied for funds that made it possible for him to work and study at foreign glass studios. In his application, he wrote, “To my opinion, glass works might arise that, although they will keep their Dutch character, could mean a significant improvement to known techniques”.
That same year Andries Dirk Copier made two working trips to Murano, where he experienced a strong sense of connection to the gifted glassblower Lino Tagliapietra.
Inspired by the play of lines in the work of abstract artist Michel Seuphor (1901–1991), and with the use of the Venetian filigree technique, he tread upon new insights concerning glass. The result of his Italian working trip was exhibited in 1982 in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Fascinating Optical Effects
In the autumn of 1984, Copier returned to Murano. Together with Tagliapietra, he created works for an exhibition that would take place at the beginning of 1986 in the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem on the occasion of his 85th birthday. This was also the moment that Andries Dirk Copier became completely grasped by the optical effect of interference, also known as moiré. In the months after, he developed his ideas for spectacular new works. This eventually led to Filigrane Interferenti — notably a series of ground-breaking one-off pieces with fascinating optical illusions.
Points and Waves
The jubilee exhibition took place at the beginning of 1986 and was titled Filigrane Interferenti. New Unica A. D. Copier. In the catalogue, Copier reminisces on those crucial experiments:
“I developed the ideas arising from the experiments back home in the winter of 1984/1985, and the results pushed me to revisit Murano in the early spring of 1985. It was because I had observed that the experiments had yielded objects that, put together at a certain angle, gave very special optical effects, in which straight threads of glass were distorted into points and waves”.
Fusion of Dutch and Italian design traditions
He designed single bowls and vases, but also two-piece objects and even a quadripartite object (see image); in the latter, he added three folded inserts to one tightly shaped bowl — the ultimate fusion of Dutch and Italian traditions of design.
Andries Dirk Copier himself wrote the following about it:
“It is extremely fascinating, with all one’s Dutch views on the matter, to be submerged in a world that is so totally devoted to glass. Especially this can help bring one’s own ideas to fruition, with the help of often century-old typical Italian techniques, and create objects that in my opinion provide a new combination of time-honoured principles”.
Heated Scenes
The exhibition made a great impression. All the works were for sale, which led to heated scenes on the opening. Berlin architect Dieter Enke, admirer and important collector of the work of Copier, remembers, “It was all sold out in no time. Those who were able to buy a piece counted themselves lucky.” Several museums in the Netherlands and abroad own parts of this collection.
Intense Artistic Connection
In 2000, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag dedicated an exhibition to the work of Andries Dirk Copier and Lino Tagliapietra, and their intense artistic connection. The Italian, as encouraged by Copier, developed from glassblower to successful artist. In the catalogue, the museum speaks of two internationally acclaimed glass artists that, “have had the great fortune of meeting and getting to know each other. The two different worlds of glass that were opened up in this way seemed to fit together perfectly without losing any of their individual identities”.
Exhibition
Several works by Andries Dirk Copier and Lino Tagliapietra from the Kunstconsult collection are at display in the exhibition A.D. Copier - Lino Tagliapietra: a significant improvement, in the National Glass Museum in Leerdam (The Netherlands). This exhibition can be visited until January 15, 2018. After that, the works that illustrate this blog will be at display and for sale at the Kunstconsult gallery in Amstelveen.
Text: Belinda Visser. Images: Dennis A-Tjak, Collection Kunstconsult – 20th century art | objects
