small vessel with square opening; stepped interior; vertical steps on each side forming a stepped diamond with flat sides top view; dark reddish-brown glass with copper colored and cloudy white elements on exterior

%C2%A9 Howard Ben Tr%C3%A9. All rights reserved.

Cast Form Type VI, 1979

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In the mid-1970s, Ben Tré was drawn to the artistic potential of industrial glass, and began the unique process of casting glass-which had been explored very little in the U.S.--to form archetypal abstract sculptures. Later, while at the Rhode Island School of Design, and in his Providence-area studios, Ben Tré increasingly combined translucent cast glass with various metals, gold leaf, oxides, or granite to produce original sculptures. An important early work experimenting with cast glass, opacity, and metal inclusions, Cast Form is part of a group of small objects that Ben Tre acknowledges as referencing ancient ruins, such as ziggurats, that reflected his travels and interests. Cast Form is an important precedent to large-scale public artworks that form much of his body of work since the late 1980s, yet has its own monumentality and exquisiteness. Ben Tré now works across the disciplines of sculpture, town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to produce artworks for public interaction, using glass as one medium as a means to his artistic ends.

Details
Title
Cast Form Type VI
Artist Life
born 1949
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2012.112.2
Curator Approved

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small vessel with square opening; stepped interior; vertical steps on each side forming a stepped diamond with flat sides top view; dark reddish-brown glass with copper colored and cloudy white elements on exterior

© Howard Ben Tré. All rights reserved.

Because of © restrictions, we can only show you a small image of this artwork.