Spacichromes: Stabiles of Colored Glass

Leonurdo, Vo1.6, pp. 241-242. Pergamon Press 1973. Printed in Great Britain. SPACICHROMES: STABILES OF COLORED GLASS Jacques Gruber* Calder’s static sculptures of metal sheet, which he calls stabiles, are well known. The following comment was made on my works when I was interviewed: ‘Several days ago I discovered something that does not move and yet is a strange source of motion. It is the immobile stabile. A miracle of light of these modern times,the stabiledeservesto be known for the simple reason that whatever is novel today runs the risk of becoming commonplace tomorrow. ...’[I]. I, therefore, wish to describemy kind of stabile becauseI believeit has novel features. Igot myidea for making transparent stabilesfrom reading a passage in one of Proust’s novels. He described a certain moment at a card party when the cards on the table could be seenas if they were on the * Artist livingat 9 Av. Roger Salengro, ResidenceMarjvel, Fig. 1. Untitled, spacichrome, leaded glass, 70 x 50 x 92-Chaville,France. (Received 7 December 1971.) 50 cm. (approx.), 1962. Fig. 2. ‘Tes 12vres mouill&es,mes oiseauxparall2les’, spacichrome, leadedglass, 27 x 60 x 8 cm.,1964. 241 16 242 Jacques Gruber floor. My stabiles with colored glass cast shadows on a floor or a wall. I call my stabilesspacichromes. Whilethey do not move as mobiles do, motion of the colored shadows Fig. 3. ‘Le masque’, spacichrome, leaded glass, 45 x 25 x 7 cm., 1968. can be obtained by moving a light source. But with or without motion, my spacichromes differ importantly from opaque stabiles in that they transmit colored light to the surroundings. Stabiles such as those of Calder often emphasize strength; mine emphasize fragility as well as color. The spacichromesare a kind of three-dimensional leaded glass window [2]. Figure 1 shows my first work of this kind in the form of an assemblage. The one shown in Fig. 2 is a circle of glass with spread wings of three leaded glass panes. In Fig. 3 many arrangements of glass panes are possible, each producing a set of different interacting shadows. I begin a spacichrome with the construction of a model in cardboard. The panes are outlined on the cardboard, the excess is trimmed away and the remaining pattern is folded and twisted to give a desired three-dimensional form. Before bending the cardboard, I make tracings on paper of the outlines of the panes. I use these as patterns for cutting the glass. The colored glass I use is the sameas that supplied for windows. Some of it is flashedglass, that is, it is colored glass covered by a thin coating of another color, for example red over blue. I paint the glass with hydrofluoric acid (a very dangerous corrosive material!) to eat away portions of the coating. I also use old glass, beautiful material with striations, bubbles and blemishes, and sometimes modify it by etching with the acid. I mount the glass pieces in the lead, which is then tinned to give it a silvery appearance. I carefully manipulate the sheet of leaded panes to reproduce the form of the cardboard model. The assembled form is strengthened by applying additional solder to the joints. I believe that the spacichromes represent a novel type of sculpture, hence, I am continuing to work along these lines. My present effort is to achieve structures with the minimum amount of supporting metal. REFERENCES 1. C.A. Klein,Lestabile,l’art dedemain,Le Magazine du Temps Present (Paris) (Sept. 1966). 2. Exhibition Catalogue (Chartres: Centre International du Vitrail, July 1969). ...