Josh Simpson - (Hardcover)

About the Book

This visual experience reveals the evolution of Josh SimpsonΓÇÖs evocative glass art over the past 50 years.

Book Synopsis

His signature works in glass engage tens of thousands worldwide, and this landmark comprehensive book beautifully reveals Simpson's boundary-stretching innovations in how glass is used. Chapters organized by his best-known works allow collectors, the public, experts, and students to marvel at how and why his best-known works are famous: Goblets, Planets, Vessels, Sculpture, Stellar Disks. Also included are details on his less known and experimental works, including New Mexico Glass, Tektites, and other convention-breaking contributions to glass art. Especially timely since it's the 50th-anniversary year of Simpson's work. Insights by experts in the glass world, including William Warmus, Tina Oldknow, Nezka Pfeifer, and others, supply additional views.

Simpson Art is in these public collections:

American Craft Museum, New York, New York
Bergstrom-Mahler Museum; Neenah, Wisconsin
Brunnier Museum; Ames, Iowa
Chrysler Museum; Norfolk, Virginia
Corning Museum of Glass; Corning, New York
Dartmouth College Hood Museum; Hanover, New Hampshire
Fuller Art Museum; Brockton, Massachusetts
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum; Springfield, Massachusetts
Hamilton College Emerson Gallery; Clinton, New York
Mint Museum; Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum für Gestaltung; Zurich, Switzerland
Museum of Decorative Arts; Prague, Czech Republic
Museum of Fine Arts; Boston, Massachusetts
Nelson Museum of Art; Tempe, Arizona
Newark Museum of Art
Peabody Essex Museum; Salem, Massachusetts
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Washington, DC
Royal Ontario Museum; Toronto, Canada
The Alcorcón City Museum of Glass Art; Spain
The Museum of Arts and Sciences; Macon, Georgia
U.S. State Department
Yale University Art Gallery; New Haven, Connecticut

Review Quotes

"Much more than one glass blower's personal journey, Josh Simpson's story speaks of the universal quest to find and follow one's dream. Whether realized in the fires of a glass furnace, found aloft in the cockpit of a plane, or in creating small treasures that lay waiting to be re-discovered in some of the planet's most unlikely places, Simpson's life epitomizes Emerson's maxim "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."----Douglas Heller, Co-founder of Heller Gallery

"This expansive, beautiful volume is supposedly 'just' the story of Josh Simpson's career. In truth it's the story of the entire studio glass movement, seen through the life of one of the movement's most prolific creators and steadfast teachers."
--Ulysses Grant Dietz, Chief Curator Emeritus, Newark Museum of Art

"A statement toward the end of this book (page 285) perhaps says it best: 'In 1971, Josh Simpson found a calling that he couldn't resist, and in the years that followed, the allure of this magical material never left him.' His sense of wonder, enthusiasm, creativity, innate artistry and boundless energy, along with a dedication never to admit defeat in the face of frustrations and failures, led Simpson to develop startling new effects which he used to create a stunning body of work over the past fifty years. This book, filled with glorious photographs of his remarkable creations, placed within the framework of his odyssey, is filled with technical and personal insights and self-deprecating humor that helps explain why he has enjoyed such a spectacular and consequential career."----Dwight P. Lanmon, Former Director, The Corning Museum of Glass; Director Emeritus, The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

"Each day over the last 20 years I look at the Josh Simpson Planet on my desk and marvel . . . I now realize how incredible his journey has been to get on the other side of artistic complexity in creating clear beauty in glass that cannot help but connect all who see his work to the world around them."--Tom Vilsack, former Governor of Iowa

"I've known Josh for 45 of these 50 visionary years and have learned more about him from the insightful essays and his own humorous commentary in this beautifully illustrated book."
--John O'Hern, Santa Fe Editor, International Artist Publishing