Page 5 - Lino Tagliapietra, Il Maestro
P. 5
Il Maestro
Essay by Maria Porges
Widely recognized as the preeminent glass artist in the world today, Lino Tagliapietra is celebrated both for his extraordinary mastery of traditional tools, techniques and forms and for a lifetime of continual innovation. Having begun his first job in a glass factory as a boy of eleven, Tagliapietra will be 90 in August, and – after nearly eight decades of working daily with glass – has finally stepped back. “Il Maestro” is the first exhibition of his work that Montague Gallery has presented since his retirement last year.
25 carefully-curated works created between 1998 and 2021 exhibit the artist’s characteristic timeless elegance. Many embody the unique grace and quality of weightlessness that Tagliapietra is known for: his signature teardrop shape, balanced as if by magic on an impossibly tiny base. Seen as a whole, this group of pieces offers a microcosm of the artist’s almost encyclopedic range of techniques, and includes representative works from many of his best-known series.
Lino Tagliapietra • II Maestro 5
