One Page Fact Sheet
New Docent Presentations MMR
Date of Presentation: 4/7/14
Docent Presenting: Marlene Hall
Artist’s Name: Edris Eckhardt
Nationality: American
2-3 Facts about the artist’s life:
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Was “nationally and internationally [known].. from the 1930s well into the 1970s … for her work
in bronze, glass and ceramics (Source: Cleveland Arts Prize)
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“Born in Cleveland in 1905, the daughter of … a plumber who taught her to melt lead and solder
joints, Edythe made up her mind early that she would not be held back by the silly rules of polite
society.” (Source: Cleveland Arts Prize)
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“Eckhardt … was long neglected by art historians in an era when women artists were not taken
as seriously as their male counterparts… At the Cleveland School of Art (CSA) she was passed
over for the Herman N. Matzen Award in favor of a male student … because the committee felt
the year of study abroad would be wasted on a woman who might choose family over career….
[Thus], upon graduation from CSA (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) in 1931, Edythe Aline
Eckhardt changed her first name to the more gender-ambiguous Edris.” (Source: Cleveland Arts
Prize)
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From 1933 to 1934, funding from the “Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), [had] an enormous
impact on her career, [allowing her to create] sculpted figures from children’s literature for
display in public libraries across the U.S. Before long Marshall Field’s and Neiman Marcus
department stores [were] selling her creations… Many of Eckhardt’s storybook sculptures and
other pieces for which she is justly famed were made using a process known as paté de
verre…” (Source: Cleveland Arts Prize)
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In 1953, when Eckhardt was in the midst of her career as an artist (she was already established
as a ceramics artist) and at 48 years of age, she made a “radical change” to become a glass
artist. (Source: The New Bedford Museum of Glass)
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“In the 1950s Eckhardt, after thousands of failed attempts, rediscovered a process that had
eluded her fellow artists for 2,000 years: the Egyptian art of fusing gold leaf between sheets of
glass to produce gold glass, which resulted in some of her most powerful work.” (Source:
Cleveland Arts Prize) She is “believed to be the first American artist to mix and melt her own
glass batch”. (Source: The New Bedford Museum of Glass)
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Was “among the very few [artists who] … explore[d] glass in a studio setting before the 1960s”
(Source: The New Bedford Museum of Glass)
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In the 1960s and 1970s, she was responsible for several other “technological innovations”,
including:
“a new process for laminating hundreds of colored glass segments into a single panel”
“entrapping plant material between fused sheets of glass”
“drawing with molten glass using as mysterious ‘glass pen’ of her invention. The exact
nature of this pen remains a subject of speculation.”
(Source: The New Bedford Museum of Glass)
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“Between 1953 and her death in 1998, Eckhardt produced and sold more than four thousand
objects, and her patrons included Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Queen Elizabeth
II.” (Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery)
Title of the Work: Head of a Woman
Date: circa 1955-1965
Description (i.e. materials used):
Pressed, colored glass (Pâte de verre); marble base
“Pâte de verre – French term for glass paste; a material produced by grinding glass into a fine powder
and adding 3 key ingredients: a binder to create a paste; a flux to facilitate melting; and a coloring
agent, such as metallic oxide. The paste is pressed into a mold, dried, and then fused by heating.”
(Quoted from MMR placard)
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2-3 Facts about the object/work of art:
It was “made using a process known as paté de verre (paste of glass) in which the separate pieces of
glass are first cut and carefully assembled (“laid up”), then placed in a kiln. There, at lower
temperatures than are used in glass blowing, the pieces take on the consistency of honey and fuse,
after which the piece has to be slowly and very carefully cooled.” (Source: Cleveland Arts Prize)
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“[At the time] only a few artists anywhere were using this complicated, disaster-prone technique. The
iridescent quality of pate de verre, which seems to glow with an internal fire. (Source: Cleveland Arts
Prize)
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This was created during a highly successful time in her career. She won two John Simon Guggenheim
Awards for Fine Arts (1955 and 1959) as well as the Louis Comfort Tiffany Fellowship (1956). (Sources:
The New Bedford Museum of Glass and PBS “Antiques Roadshow”, Grand Rapids, Michigan,
5/4/2009)
Why did you choose this artist/artwork?
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Style and material – I love glass artwork
Curiosity and interest in the process (pâte de verre)
Artist’s innovative history as both artist and feminist
What information would you share about this artist/object with a museum visitor?
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How unique the artist was in her inspired rediscovery of Egyptian and Roman glass techniques
Point out the internal glow and/or translucency or opaqueness (smaller the frit, or pieces of
glass, the more the artwork becomes so)
A great 20th century example of American ingenuity as well as female artists
(if visitor is familiar with MMU’s Pacific Rose) Compare this to Jon Kuhn’s use of pâte de verre
in his work, such as
(if a young person or child) How the artist was known for her storybook sculptures (Alice in
Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, etc.)
List 2 questions you would ask about the artist/object to facilitate discussion and active
engagement with museum visitors:
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Does this look like “regular” glass? How would you describe the texture?
How does this fit into your concept of art?
List the resources that were most helpful in researching the artist and the art work:
Following websites:
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Cleveland Arts Prize http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/edris_eckhardt.html
The New Bedford Museum of Glass: Edris Eckhardthttp://www.nbmog.org/EvePage.html
Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery: Edris Eckhardt
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1399
PBS “Antiques Roadshow”, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 5/4/2009
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200805A18.html
Wikipedia: Edris Eckhardt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edris_Eckhardt
Kovels.com: Pate-de-verre http://www.kovels.com/price-guide/glass-price-guide/pate-deverre.html?/figurine/-little-miss-muffet-edris-eckhardt-5-x-6-12-in=&eid=729109
Warm Glass: Pate de Verre http://www.warmglass.com/pate_de_verre.htm
Carolina Arts: “Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Uptown Charlotte, NC, Offers Major Works by
Jon Kuhn”, December 2003 issue
http://www.carolinaarts.com/1203mintcd.html