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Isabel De Obaldia

Captive Spirit, 1999

Description

Maker

  • Isabel De Obaldia, 1957, Panamanian

Title

Captive Spirit

Year

1999

Medium

Glass, kiln-cast, lathe-engraved

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • glass,
  • diamond

Techniques

  • engraving (incising)

Dimensions

54.6 x 33 x 15.2 cm (21 1/2 x 13 x 6 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed and dated 1999

Type

  • Sculpture

Credit

Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art

Object Number

2000.7

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Recent Acquisitions in Glass

June 18 - October 10, 2004

Recent Acquisitions

February 18 - April 16, 2000

Isabel de Obaldia studied architecture at the University of Panama and drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris prior to graduating from RISD in 1979. She explored cinematography, graphic design, and painting before turning her attention to glass in 1987, when she began a transition to three-dimensional work after studying at the Pilchuck Glass School, founded by Dale Chihuly (RISD MFA 1967; faculty, 1968-73). In her small but unmistakably monumental work, opaque and luminescent colors are fused in the casting process, producing figural forms that evoke early Greek or pre-Columbian sculpture. Attracted to glass as "an analogy with the fragility of Man," she produces works like Espiritu Cautivo, in which a captive spirit is held prisoner by a transparent but weighty human form. By acquiring Espiritu Cautivo from the artist's recent one-person show in New York, the Museum has added the work of a contemporary glass sculptor to its renowned collection of modem Latin American art.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Captive Spirit with the accession number of 2000.7. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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