Tiffany’s Glass Mosaics

When you hear the words “Tiffany” and “glass,” you may immediately think of leaded glass windows or luminous lamps, but artist Louis C. Tiffany expressed his passion for color and glass most innovatively in the technique of mosaic. From monumental architectural installations to inkwells for desktops, Tiffany’s Glass Mosaics will be the first museum exhibition focused exclusively on this aspect of Tiffany’s extraordinary artistic career.

The exhibition will feature a selection of objects from museums, libraries, and private collections, including fireplace surrounds, decorative panels, desk accessories, design drawings, sample panels, lamps, trade literature, and a special look at Tiffany’s innovative materials including an array of sheet glass, glass “jewels,” and glass fragments drawn from the archive of The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass.

Treasured by local communities, many of Tiffany’s architectural glass mosaics survive today, tucked away in churches, libraries, universities and other public buildings. This exhibition at The Corning Museum of Glass will use new digital displays to bring these artworks to audiences in Corning. By examining the inventive materials and process—from design inspiration to fabrication—we hope that visitors will appreciate the creativity of Tiffany’s talented artists and artisans as never before.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, Tiffany's Glass Mosaics features essays from noted scholars and curators who, for therst time, investigate the breadth of mosaic production at the company from the 1880s through the 1930s. A detailed appendix lists all of the known public, ecclesiastical, and residential commissions executed by Tiany'srm. The publication is richly illustrated with objects from major museums, libraries, and private collections in the United States and Europe. Many of these large-scale murals have never before been photographed or published.

Louis C. Tiffany was one of America's most acclaimed artists and businessmen working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He directed an artistic empire in the design and creation of leaded-glass windows, lamps, blown glass vessels, objects of luxury, and mosaics―one of his most innovative expressions in the medium of glass.