Painting with Glass

The Tribe of Benjamin, 1962, Marc Chagall
Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem (fair use*)

Artists often search for ways to expand their creative expression through experimentation in new mediums. In the case of working with glass, artistry is combined with specialized technical skills and sometimes even complex engineering equations (large stained glass windows, for example) often requiring collaborations with a team of artisans and craftspeople. We were fascinated to discover a small group of post-Impressionist European painters who expanded their artistic oeuvres by making glass artworks and windows.

The art of stained glass has a long ecclesiastical history. Early church windows (dating as far back as the fourth and fifth centuries) were made with thinly sliced alabaster creating translucent light effects. Advances in glass making throughout time have allowed for great ranges of color to become available to artists. Tradit…