Lino Tagliapietra

Lino Tagliapietra (Italian, born 1934), Saturno, ca. 1980, blown glass. Gift of the Estate of Gladys M. Rubinstein, 2014.158.

Widely revered as the master of glassblowing, Lino Tagliapietra is credited with shaping the course of the international studio glass movement. Born in 1934 on a small Italian island, Tagliapietra rose from a working-class family to become an internationally acknowledged glass artist and Maestro, an honor given to the most recognized of Italian glassmakers. 

Invited to teach glassblowing at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington in 1979, Tagliapietra shared techniques that had rarely, if ever, been seen in the United States. The knowledge he shared, which traditionally had been regarded as Italian trade secrets, helped train a new generation of artists.

While respecting and acknowledging the Italian traditions in which he was trained, Tagliapietra literally stretches those traditions to new ends. He is a consummate master of many glass blowing techniques in which thin rods of glass are picked up onto the top of molten glass on the blowpipe and then fused together. The lines become liquid - sometimes thick and bold, sometimes stretched to gossamer thinness. Tagliapietra's combination of elegant, traditional methods with extravagant, contemporary sensibilities, place him as a bridge between the past and the present.