Gene Koss: Sculpture

Gene Koss is an artist in glass, but he is not content with dainty vessels or delicate compositions; rather he creates downright monumental works in which he elaborately forms glass and combines it with steel. Koss belongs to the first generation of glass artists whose works more strongly reference the trends of the liberal arts than purely the cultural-historical or material issues of his own discipline.

Gene Koss is breaking new ground in particular with his large-scale spatial sculptures: they reflect the working environment of the American farmers, the surroundings in which he grew up. Here a plough appearing as a model for the sculpture; there a reproduction of a barn’s roof truss. Yet the expression Koss generates is one of a simultaneity of yesterday and tomorrow: the glazed pieces work as guiding lights and sources of energy against monumentality and the archaic. The works appear utopian, creating echoes of a world comprised of the successful symbiosis of old and new technologies.

Koss’s working method too is acutely fascinating: he forms molten glass directly from the kiln, supported by teams of specialised assistants during the various phases of production.

This first monograph on the work of this pioneering artist in glass provides a broad overview of his creative work. Essays by curators and critics embed the work in its art historical context and expound his unique production processes.