Paul Hollister talks about Howard Ben Tré’s work at the New Glass: A Worldwide Survey (1979) exhibition. Paul Hollister Recording for New Glass: A Worldwide Survey, April 11, 1979 (Rakow title: New Glass, Corning [sound recording] / with Paul Hollister, BIB ID: 168418). Clip length: 01:35.

Paul Hollister: [inaudible] [Burial] Box by Howard Ben Tré. B-E-N, separate word, T-R-E, at least it looks that way—of the United States. And it looks as if it were, it’s only about six inches square. It’s a cubed-shape receptacle, hollow receptacle with a square hollow in the center. It goes down—it’s not more than six inches in diameter or height. Slightly less in height than diameter—and it’s a square or an open cube as one might say, with four sort of columnar Art Deco corners to it with vertical column-like protuberances at the corners. But it looks as if it were made out of translucent cinderblock and with that title and that box, it’s about as imaginative and simple and timeless as a piece could be. And it might make a good black and white photo, though obviously not color. And it looks as if it had been left out in the rain in a part of a drain pipe mechanism or something like that. It’s absolutely [laughs] got every overtone imaginable and it is simple and yet awe-inspiring. One can see the ashes of the dead. It is the color of the ashes of the dead.