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STEPHEN ROLFE POWELL
(American, born 1952)

Vase, 1992
Blown colorless and colored glass
Bequest of Addison Franklin Page 1999.8.9
Copyright permission assisted by: Brook White, Paul Nelson, and Peter Palmquist

Well known as one of Kentucky’s leading studio craft artists, Stephen Powell produces distinctive glass vessels that emphasize pattern and especially color, as seen in this vase. Irregular bands of colored glass (made in the Venetian manner from individual pieces of glass) are juxtaposed for maximum visual effect. Powell’s current work represents a continued refinement of the techniques and philosophy seen in this vase. Comparisons have been made between Powell’s work and Color Field painting, an art movement in the 1960s and 1970s that emphasized large expanses of saturated color. While appropriate, his work has a vitality and sense of movement absent in Color Field painting. This results from the fluid nature of blown glass and Powell’s desire to create “living” vessels.