Emergence in Polychrome

In 1965 Dominick Labino retired from a successful career as an engineer-inventor in the glass industry to devote full time to his own creative endeavors in glassblowing. He invented a formula that allowed glass to melt at low temperatures in small furnaces suitable for the needs of individual glassblowers, and thus, the international studio glass movement was begun. This hot-worked glass sculpture is one of a series of flame-shaped pieces that Labino made throughout the 1970s. The colorless glass encases interior veils of "dichroic" color, causing the hues to change as light strikes the piece from different angles. The graceful, fluid form of Labino's sculpture complements the special nature of the material, but it is his extraordinary sense of color and his ability to create color relationships through technical expertise that made him a master of twentieth-century glassmaking.