PETER FURLONGER
The art of calligraphy is transformed into a dynamic abstract form when Peter Furlonger applies it to sculptural glass. His exceptional work involves engraving textured lettering onto three-dimensional glass using a sand-blasting technique.
Furlonger has developed his artistry since receiving a commission for a piece of glass to be exhibited as part of the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990. Since then he has come to work in collaboration with virtuoso glassmakers to produce exquisite individual pieces, including cylinders, bowls and roundels. A glassblower such as the Isle of Wight’s Carl Nordbruch creates a piece to Peter’s specifications and it is onto this ‘canvas’ which calligraphy is engraved.
The lettering art of figures including Eric Gill (1882-1940), David Jones (1895-1974), calligrapher Werner Schneider (1935-) and the glass engraver David Peace (1915-2003) have been inspirational formative influences. The intricate illuminations of the Lindisfarne Gospels also have a deep resonance within Furlonger’s work. Text is often inspired by his love of poetry and text may be based on lines by William Wordsworth, W.B. Yeats or T.S. Eliot, but as the artist says: ‘You don’t read the text as much as feel it.’
Work by Furlonger is highly sought after by collectors and is held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, and North Lands Creative Glass, Caithness and by the British Glass Foundation.
‘Painting is like a ‘window on the world” looking out onto a wide vista, rich with the complexity of our visual experience, while calligraphy is more akin to the experience of looking through a keyhole at the cosmos’
-Peter Furlonger
’People are drawn to Peter’s work first by the superlative craftsmanship and the visual impact.. then they enjoy the slow discovery and teasing out of the texts, sometimes overlaid and entwined, their delicacy and sensitivity.’
-Penny de Quincey
includes: forward by Penny de Quincey, Letterform and Abstraction United essay by Tamzin Mackie, Studio Glass section, Stone section, Stained Glass section, Graphics section, Afterword by Harriet Frazer
Paperback, 21 x 30cm
52 pages (43 full colour illustration)
ISBN 978-1-906601-38-6