Maurice Marinot, Golden Parrot bottle, 1928 ©
Jean Tholance

TREASURES OF SAND AND FIRE

Glas and crystal at Les Arts Décoratifs, 14th-21st CENTURY
9/4/2015-15/11/2015

Curators: Jean-Luc Olivié, curator in chief, Glass Department and Véronique AYROLES, curatorial assistant
Exhibition design: Philippe Pumain

The exhibition will feat ure a selection of more than 600 exceptional pieces from the museum’s reserve collection.
Chronologically, from the Renaissance to the present day, the exhibition traces the development of glassmaking skils and techniques, revealing the colection’s wealt h and variety. It provides a fascinating panorama of the specific styles, techniques and tastes of Each period, paying tribute to European, oriental and american schools and creative centres. The chronology of the twelve rooms also evokes the history of the museum’s construction of this heritage, through purchases and above al donations and beq uests by enlightened collectors, as always combining the beautiful and the useful.

“TREASURES of sand and fire” is the history of glass told by this collection, today regarded as one of the finest in Europe.

Posted 2 April 2015

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This exhibition is the first major panorama of the history of glass since the Art du Verre exhibition at Les Arts Décoratifs in 1951. This international dimension goes hand in hand with the particular attention paid to French glassmakers, illustrated by comparisons between ancient and contemporary pieces and production methods. A progression of ornamental pieces, ordinary household objects and artworks will lead the visitor chronologically from the first to the second floor of the exhibition. Each piece also illustrates the tastes of collectors who actively enriched the collection, and highlights the major acquisitions the museum has been making since the 19th century.

Mosque lamp in the name of Sultan Baibars II, Egypt or Syria, 1309-1310, blown glass © Jean Tholance

Arabo-Islamic pieces such as Mameluke enamelled glass are compared to the creations of Philippe J. Brocard in Paris and the Lobmeyr company in Vienna, alongside the Chinese Qing dynasty glassware that so fascinated Émile Gallé.

The exhibition also takes visitors through the history of European glass from the 16th to the 18th century, via donations and bequests by passionate collectors such as Patrice Salin, Madeleine Bougenaux, François Carnot and Madame Fernand Bernard. The modernization of the glass industry in the early 19th century prompted the emergence of French luxury glass and crystal works at centres such as Baccarat. The originality of the “opal crystal” they produced is one of the collection’s keynotes.


Two Mermaids bowl, René Lalique (1860-1945), France, Salon des Artistes Français 1909, moulded glass, wheelengraved and patinated, frosted interior © Jean Tholance		Les Arts Décoratifs did much to nurture the blooming and promotion of a new art of glass, and until 1914 amassed a superb collection featuring works by Emile Gallé, René Lalique and François- Eugène Rousseau. This active acquisitions policy lost impetus after the First World War, but spectacular additions such as the bequest by Monsieur and Madame Barthou, passionate collectors of the glassmakers Maurice Marinot and François Décorchemont, continued to enrich the museum.


One of the rooms on the upper floor explores the history of drinking glasses from 1900 to today. The other rooms on this floor are devoted to French and foreign creation over the last forty years. This period also saw the emergence of new specialised organisations reflecting this new dynamism, such as the founding of the Centre du Verre at Les Arts Décoratifs in 1982 and the Rencontres Internationales du Musée du Verre de Sars Poterie. The exhibition also highlights the generations of artists who have transformed the approach to glass since the 1960s, featuring the recent wave of talented artists with pieces by Stanislav Libensky, Jaroslava Brychtova, Bertil Valien, Richard Meitner, Bernard Dejonghe, Toots Zynsky, Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass and younger creators such as Damien François, Vanessa Mitrani and Martin Hlubucek.		Lino Tagliapietra, Vase, hot-modelled blown glass, cabled filigree decoration in relief, 1993 © Jean Tholance


Yoichi Ohira, Cristallo Sommerso Scolpito no. 68, Venice, 2009 © Jean Tholance		The Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques in Marseille, and the Centre International d’Art Verrier at Meisenthal, two institutions actively involved in contemporary creation, will be showing recent work by Philippe Parreno (CIRVA), Michel Paysant (CIAV), and David Dubois (CIAV et CIRVA). A history of glass past and present, of taste and of a unique collection, this exhibition explores every facet of this extraordinary material that can take every form and every colour. See the map in the Agenda> Decorative Arts Museum 107 Rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris, France +33 1 44 55 57 50 lesartsdecoratifs.fr‎