Fragile Beauty: Treasures from the Corning Museum

For thousands of years, glassmakers have combined sand, minerals, heat, and air to create utilitarian and decorative objects

Drawn from the vast collection of the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, Fragile Beauty: Treasures from the Corning Museum demonstrates how makers from across time and around the globe have taken inspiration from plants, animals, and other aspects of nature to create dazzling objects.

Some twenty-eight objects or pairs ranging in time from antiquity to the present dazzle the senses and show a remarkable breadth of color, technique, form, and function. Highlights of the selection include glass from the legendary Venetian island of Murano; enameled glass made in early modern Europe and India; objects blown, cut, carved, assembled, and otherwise crafted with astonishingly varied techniques; Art Nouveau glass by artists including Louis Comfort Tiffany, René Lalique, and Steuben; and works by contemporary American and Asian glass artists.​​

Set in the evocative light-filled space of the Clark’s Michael Conforti Pavilion, each object provides a unique encounter with color, form, and pattern. Together these objects show the range of creative expression glass artists have achieved.

Credit: Overview from museum website