Image courtesy of Martin Blank.

Martin Blank

Glass artist Martin Blank (1962– ) received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1984, studying under Bruce Chao. He subsequently relocated to Seattle where he spent over a decade working on Dale Chihuly’s team, including as chief gaffer. Since the 1990s, he has worked independently, focusing on sculptural work in glass and creating monumentally scaled installations for public art commissions in both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Works

Repose in Amber, 2004. Hand sculpted glass on steel. H: 9.5 ft, W: 15 ft, D: 50 ft. Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Image courtesy of Martin Blank.

Free Flow, 2003. (a) H: 72.5 cm, W: 65.2 cm, D: 31.4 cm; (b) H: 49.9 cm, W: 56 cm, D: 13 cm; (c) H: 37.2 cm, W: 53.4 cm, D: 31 cm; (d) H: 91.2 cm, W: 40.7 cm, D: 40.7 cm. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Gift of the Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family (2007.4.135)

Current, 1994. Slumped glass, reclaimed wood, and metal. H: 162 in, W: 360 in, D: 96 in. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Rosalind Poll. Image courtesy of Martin Blank.

Martin Blank talks about teamwork and the ability to intuit what a glassblower needs in the Venetians demonstration.

Playing01:13 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank talks about teamwork and the ability to intuit what a glassblower needs in the Venetians demonstration. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:13.

Martin Blank: For me that’s a—I just got out of the glory hole, the thing’s fiery hot, it’s moving all over the place, and I get it to the bench and then Lino jumps in, and boom, you kick it and the goalie misses, and you get a goal, and it’s like there’s that intensity of the teamwork and the support that you have to give each team member in order for this object to manifest. It is a form. It’s a funny kind of alchemy. It’s a liquid, right? And most liquids take the shape of their container; but we, with our air and our intuition and our skills, our honed skills, are able to take a liquid and create it into a volume. And then adorn it by creating objects that we apply to the side. So there is an unspoken language that you have amongst highly skilled glass workers that’s universal. So up at Pilchuck [Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington] I see a Japanese master working and I’m able to just make a gesture, ‘Oh you need this now.’ And he’d be like, ‘Ey ye ye,’ I and I would run over and I knew exactly what he needed, and then I could see him struggling cause I knew because I had been there before, you know, what he was—what we were trying to do.

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Martin Blank uses dancing as an analogy to describe glassblowing.

Playing0:32 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank uses dancing as an analogy to describe glassblowing. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length 00:32

Martin Blank: And so it’s like good dancers, you know, you run up to a good dancer and you grab them and you spin ‘em and you just give a little twist in your hand and that person knows you want them to spin and spin out, and you give ‘em a little yank and they spin in and then, you know, so there’s a lot of these sort of practice dance moves that, that teams, you—good dancers can always go amongst each other and work with other dancers. It takes a while to really know your partner, but you could go have a really good romp with someone and do a great dance. And so it’s a lot like that with glassblowing.

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Martin Blank discusses working with Lino Tagliapietra during Chihuly’s 1992 Venetian series demonstration at NYEGW.

Playing01:17 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank discusses working with Lino Tagliapietra during Chihuly’s 1992 Venetian series demonstration at NYEGW. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:17.

Martin Blank: And so as I’m watching Lino, I can see that he’s sort of looking like he’s trying to sort of see around the other side. So I’ll turn, turn, turn, and then I could see him move in, and I’ll just instinctively know, firm up on the blowpipe, hold it tight, steady, he’s going to push. And then he does, he reaches right in. And if it’s not quite right, he’ll give me a little twitch with his hands, like a little signal, like he’s like—imagine like if you’re reaching out for a glass of wine or a glass and then you shake your hand, like you’re turning clockwise to turn it clockwise, or, or counterclockwise. That’s his hand saying little more, little more, little more, little more, and then it’ll dive in or it, or if a big gesture, that means turn a lot, turn a lot, turn a lot. But if it’s these little shakes clockwise, I know, ‘Okay, turn a little bit, a little bit. Stop, freeze, anchor. Here comes the piece,’ and then he’ll turn with his head, he’ll nod his head, ‘To the right to the right, more and more and more.’ And they’ll be, and then he’ll use some Italian ‘Gira, gira, gira, basta,’ you know, turn, turn, stop. ‘Ferma, ferma,’ you know, that means hold it tight, you know, strong, be strong. And then he’d be also like, ‘Pieno,’ slowly, slowly, and then, ‘Perfetto, mi piace.’ That’s perfect. I like it.

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Martin Blank explains the gaffer’s role in glassblowing.

Playing01:57 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank explains the gaffer’s role in glassblowing. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:57.

Martin Blank: So I was the main gaffer or master blower for Dale for many, many years. And my responsibility was to sort of be able to climb inside Dale’s head and interpret the images into three dimensional objects. And we had a real nice synergy and understanding of each other, and he would often draw with his two fingers in the air. And he would, you know, do his double line, draw it in the air with two fingers, and he said, ‘You got it?’ And I’m like, ‘Well….’ And he’d draw it again in the air. And then my role was to then manifest that object and run the team. So being the gaffer or the master blower, you’re not just responsible for making the object, you also have to make sure that all nine people on the team are focused and heading in the direction that you want so that you can complete the piece. So there’s a lot that’s going on. You’re not just making the object. But ultimately, the purpose is, I create the shapes that Dale wants me to make. And he was the conductor of the orchestra where everyone in the orchestra was first string. And we all had certain talents. And one of my gifts with Dale was being able to help him explore shape and get it out in space. And that was a unique thing that we had. Whenever we would go to a new country, my role with him was the guy that he would love to sculpt with. We just hit it off and I could really get a sense, being a sculptor, ‘Oh, you mean you want to look like this?’ And as it’s unfolding, I would try and make it look as dramatic as possible and not cookie cutter. So we were sort of sculpting together, you know? And, and I knew, you know, he took it to heart that I was responsible for creating this brilliant visionary human being’s artwork. And so I was on point trying to think, ‘What’s going to make this glass object be the strongest and most intriguing object that I could make?’

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Martin Blank talks about the hiring of Lino Tagliapietra to work on the Venetians.

Playing01:18 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank talks about the hiring of Lino Tagliapietra to work on the VenetiansOral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:18.

Martin Blank: This blow is probably like the, maybe the second or third Venetian blow. And so he hired Lino to come in and work on this body of work, and so it was a rare opportunity for us to work with a real master from Murano—started when he was 10. So we were all just tickled pink, like whatever Lino wants, Lino gets. And we all were bringing our A game because, you know, here’s one of the world’s greatest living glass workers, and we get to work with him. And so it was really focused around Dale and Lino. And then my job was to facilitate Lino—make it easier for Lino to blow and create the vessels. So I had a very minor artistic role. I had a very large role in the success of the piece, but not artistically, more physically during the manifestation of it. And—it was very physical and hard, hard, hard work. Lino was in complete control of the artistic composition through interpreting Dale’s drawings. And so it was really about Lino and Dale. And then they had me, who they trusted and loved, that knew I had their back and would do everything I could to make sure I could facilitate the creation of the piece.

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Martin Blank describes how glassblowing is like a dance.

Playing0:20 Transcript
Martin Blank

Martin Blank describes how glassblowing is like a dance. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length 00:20

Martin Blank: And it is very much a dance. And it’s also—I call glassblowing—it’s sort of a cross between being a concert pianist, because you have to have a lot of dexterity, you have to have a lot of motor memory, but then you have to put your emotion into it. And then you have to have the physicality of being, like, a soccer star.

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