Past Exhibitions

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages Special Exhibition October 13, 2005–January 4, 2006 SAM Simonyi Special Exhibition Galleries

Shimmering, iridescent glass vases; glass lampshades featuring the luminous gossamer wings and glowing eyes of dragonflies; stately stained-glass windows depicting lush garden landscapes; and luxurious objets d'art evoke the aesthetic of the foremost creator of decorative arts in early twentieth-century America: Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933).

The Seattle Art Museum is extremely fortunate to be the first presenting venue of a nationwide tour of the exhibition Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages, organized by Exhibitions International of New York. Curator Marilynn Johnson (former Associate Curator, the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) has assembled more than 120 major works, many of which are fragile, one-of-a-kind pieces that are difficult to procure for a traveling exhibition. Some of these important loans have never before been publicly exhibited.

As the son of Charles Tiffany, founder of the luxury silver and jewelry firm Tiffany & Company, Louis Comfort Tiffany benefited from a superb education and foreign travel. He was expected to take over the family business but chose instead to become an artist. He took up painting at an early age before developing an exceptional talent to create and assemble beautifully designed objects for churches and domestic interiors–including one-of-a-kind window designs, Favrile glass vases, enamels and jewelry, as well as mass-produced lamps, desk sets and chandeliers. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the virtuosity and success of these works had brought Tiffany international fame. With the assistance of talented artisans who were organized into workshops known as "Tiffany Studios," he created some of his finest work over the first two decades of the century.

The exhibition, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages, is arranged by predominant influences on Tiffany's art. The first theme is based on his credo that "Nature is always beautiful." Whether represented through a brooch of gold and pearl imaginatively fashioned as seaweed, or in an earthy ceramic vase resembling fern fronds, the natural world is evident in many of Tiffany's creations.

The second section of the exhibition, "Light Comes from the East," features works inspired by Tiffany's travels to the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Moorish Spain. A watercolor of a Near Eastern street scene, a lotus pagoda lamp and carp swimming through the undersea world of a stained-glass window reflect Tiffany's travels, as well as the design motifs of China and Japan that he encountered through expositions, books and periodicals.

"Time is the Measure of all Things: Past and Future" features Tiffany's fascination with antiquity. His "Cypriot" vases, for example, were inspired by works excavated on Cyprus and seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This section also looks toward the future, exploring Tiffany's awareness of reform movements of the late nineteenth century—the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau—and their impact on twentieth-century design.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages doesn't simply present masterpieces; it also demonstrates Tiffany's exploration of styles, his technical innovations in glass, enamel and ceramic, and his exotic furniture designs. In 1957 Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, "Tiffany was one of the most creative artist spirits of his time. He took that spirit into craftsmanship and did some remarkably beautiful things for any period." Therein lies the essence of this exhibition.

–Julie Emerson, The Ruth J. Nutt Curator of Decorative Arts

Lamp with Dragonfly Motif
1899-1910
leaded glass, bronze
28 x 22 in.
The New-York Historical Society, N84.113
Organized and Circulated by Exhibitions International, NY