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Kay Leroy Ruggles, designer

Umbo Stacking Chairs, ca. 1970

Description

Maker

  • Kay Leroy Ruggles, American, designer
  • Directional Industries, Inc., American, manufacturer

Title

Umbo Stacking Chairs

Year

ca. 1970

Medium

Molded plastic

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • plastic,
  • foam rubber

Dimensions

73 x 44.7 x 45.7 cm (28 13/16 x 17 5/8 x 18 inches)

Type

  • Decorative Arts,
  • Furniture

Credit

Gift of the Estate of Samuel Cate

Object Number

2003.97.2

About

An intricate interplay of color and form, this vessel exemplifies Thaddeus Wolfe’s contemporary approach to traditional glass-making techniques. The artist first created this form in Styrofoam, which was then covered in plaster to make a mold. Layers of colored glass were blown into the mold, both filling it and leaving random voids, then the plaster mold was destroyed, leaving the unique work. Innovatively employing cameo-glass techniques, Wolfe exposed the colored layers by carving geometric facets into the surface, while also leaving smooth expanses. The resulting vessel references naturalistic mineral formations as well as modern art and architecture—particularly Brutalism’s muscular modularity.

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Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Umbo Stacking Chairs with the accession number of 2003.97.2. 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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