CORNING, NY.- The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) has unveiled its new exhibition Brilliant Color. The exhibition is the first of its kind to address the chromatic revolution that occurred in glass during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and includes more than 140 works from the Museum’s permanent collection and Rakow Research Library.

“Brilliant Color is the first exhibition that contextualizes glass within the larger craze for color that engulfed fine and decorative arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” said exhibition curator Amy McHugh. “Endless experimentation by glass manufacturers resulted in iconic designs in the medium that continue to fascinate and inspire today."

Brilliant Color features an array of dynamic artists from the Gilded Age to the present day, including Émile Gallé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Carder, Leo Moser, René Lalique, Klaus Moje, and many more. A selection of contemporary objects forefront the exhibition to connect historic developments of color to their continued impact on the global network of artists and designers in the field of glass. Through a dynamic presentation, including a large-scale installation of colored glass objects arranged according to rainbow color order, the exhibition explores the methods 19th and 20th century innovators pioneered to produce new colors in glass and decorative applications for the material. Four vignettes representing the uses of colored glass in dining, self-care and adornment, leisure, and play contextualize how these colorful objects were used every day. Visitors will also see historical batch books—or recipe books for making glass—describing techniques and tools.

Visitors will explore the objects on display through interactives including a digital component to discover additional facts about glass colors, designers, and countries that were pioneering in the field; a video detailing the vivid patterns produced by a historical kaleidoscope; and a dramatic celebration of the full spectrum of colored glass that highlights individual stories of objects and where they fit on the historical journey of glassmaking.

Visitors can further immerse themselves in the world of color with a special Make Your Own Glass project featuring dichromatic glass encased in a flameworked pendant. Guests will work with Studio staff to melt glass rods in a torch to create their pendant. Projects must cool overnight and can be picked up the next day or shipped within the U.S. and Canada at no additional cost.

To accompany the exhibition, The University of Washington Press has published a richly illustrated catalogue titled Brilliant Color: Glass Innovation and Design. The publication includes new scholarship examining the color revolution in glass through different lenses. Essay topics include: the popularization of colored glass through world fair displays; the impact of England’s inclusion of chemistry in its secondary education on designers such as Frederick Carder, Harry Northwood, and Joseph Locke; glass manufacturer Leo Moser and his experiments with rare earth oxides to develop new gemstone hues of light-sensitive glass; and the eruption of color glassware of the 1910s and 1920s, focusing on the innovative designs of C. Dorflinger & Sons and Frederick Carder for Steuben.