Linda Lichtman
USA
1941 - 2021
Linda Lichtman believed stained glass windows were expressive boundaries between an interior, personal realm and the exterior world: permeable yet somehow impregnable, expressive yet anonymous. The glass connects and separates us, simultaneously revealing and concealing, protecting and exposing; it creates a seemingly fragile boundary touching both the material and immaterial. As an artist, she always worked with deliberation, intent, and vision, but the glass remained somewhat autonomous, like a child of her shaping, sent into the world, independent of her.
Beginning her studies in glass with Patrick Reyntiens in 1973 at Burleighfield House in England she apprenticed to other glass artists in the U.K, Canada and Germany. With a BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art, she continued to study at the Museum School in Boston. She maintained a glass studio for 34 years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then established one in nearby Somerville. Her last studio will house the Linda Lichtman Glass Fellowship being offered to accomplished glass artists in the Boston area.
She applied a painter's methods to mouth blown antique and flashed glass, first etching away spots and layers to a brighter colour, then with her characteristic exuberance to shape and define with stain and paint, created playful objects with titles like, “In the Palace of the Emir”, “Portrait of La Farge as a Jolthead Porgy” or “Flatfish Dreaming of the Third Dimension”. Working with enamels, her projects for civic buildings, hospitals, universities and public spaces enabled her to transform larger areas into welcoming spaces, still with enchanting titles such as “Totems of Light” at Logan Airport. Her aim, always was to apply a human touch to an architectural scale.
Her smaller works are held by collectors in the U.K, Europe and Japan. Several books on International work in glass and numerous other publications portray many of her pieces and projects.