Marvels of Murrine: The Artistry of Richard Marquis

Marvels of Murrine: the Artistry of Richard Marquis reveals Richard Marquis’ decades-long engagement with and mastery of murrine—a centuries-old technique that allows for fine and intricate glass patterning. The first American to be permitted to blow glass in the famed Venini Factory in Murano, Marquis not only honed his skills with the complex, traditional techniques but applied them to create entirely new kinds of objects that embraced pop culture, humor, and social narrative. Marquis’s experience at Venini, coupled with his own distinct artistic perspective and interest in pushing the boundaries of form, forever changed the trajectory of glassmaking, in the U.S. and internationally.

Marvels of Murrine will feature a selection of murrine tea and coffee pots, produced between 1979 and 2005, including a 1979 example from his iconic Crazy Quilts teapot series as well as Silhouettes and Stripes Teapot, 1999, which captures his early engagement with symbols of American patriotism and counterculture. The exhibition will also include archival materials, such as sample boxes of murrine tiles that reflect Marquis’s deep understanding of the process and innate ability to create new patterns and forms using the technique. Among these objects are the canes and murrine from Marquis’s groundbreaking work The Lord’s Prayer, which captures a prayer that appears often in folk and outsider art. The completed work, with letters made in murrine, was entirely unprecedented and required tremendous endurance and technical prowess to create. Marvels of Murrine will be followed by additional presentations of Marquis’s highly varied and distinct murrine works.

Wall color for this exhibition was generously provided by Alkemis Paint, the world’s first architectural wellness paint.