Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity

Maker

Josiah McElheny (American, b. 1966), (RISD BFA 1989, Glass)

Title

Studies in the Search for Infinity

Year

1997-1998

Medium

  • Blown glass (eight plates),
  • fabric covered wooden shelf,
  • framed text; ten parts

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Blown glass (eight plates),
  • fabric covered wooden shelf,
  • framed text; ten parts

Materials

wood, blown glass

Dimensions

55.9 x 335.9 x 26 cm (22 x 132 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2001.71

Type

  • Glass

Exhibition History

Multi-Part Art
Contemporary Works in the Collection
Jul 11, 2008 – Mar 29, 2009

Label copy

After studying at RISD, McElheny apprenticed to master glassblowers in both Sweden and Italy. His work of the past decade unites extraordinary skill rooted in the history and craft of glassblowing with a conceptual framework or mode of present­ation that belongs to the post-modern art world. In Studies in the Search for Infinity, McElheny

re­created Venetian Renaissance latticino glass­ware, characterized by a combination of milky white threads or canes with clear, transparent crystal. The delicate geometric patterns vary, but they have in common a central vanishing point so that the decorative lines seem to converge or disappear as the perspectival illusion of endless space. The glassware display is accompanied by a framed text written by the artist in which he provides basic information about Renaissance painting and the relationship of perspective drawing to optics, mathematics, and spiritual perfection. In the sec­ond paragraph, McElheny speculates about how Venetian glassblowers contributed to Renaissance thought in their search for infinity and thus created a parallel history.

Recent Acquisitions in Glass
Jun 18, 2004 – Oct 10, 2004

Related Objects

No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity
No Image Available

Josiah McElheny

Studies in the Search for Infinity

More objects +

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Josiah McElheny (American, b. 1966)
Studies in the Search for Infinity, 1997-1998
Blown glass (eight plates), fabric covered wooden shelf, framed text; ten parts
55.9 x 335.9 x 26 cm (22 x 132 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches)
Museum Acquisition Fund 2001.71

To request 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.

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Main Navigation

  • Visit

    • Hours & Admission
    • Accessibility & Amenities
    • Tours & Group Visits
    • Visitor Guidelines
  • Art & Design

    • Collection Research
    • Collection
    • Past Exhibitions
  • Join / Give

    • Become a Member
    • Give
  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Watch / Listen / Read

    • The Latest
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Audio & Video

Footer Secondary Navigation

  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use
Tickets
Homepage
Go to the risd.edu homepage. This link will open in a new window.