Bertil Vallien: Somna/vakna Book

Swedish glass sculptor Bertil Vallien's most recent body of work, Somna Vakna (Sleeping/Waking), is the culmination of a 30-year career that has remarkably close ties to American art. This first book-length study to be readily available in the U.S. sets the art of Bertil Vallien in the context of both American art of the 1960s and postwar European existentialist/humanist cultural and artistic strains. Matthew Kangas examines how the artist's cast-glass abstract and representational forms alternately epitomize and transcend their original cultural context of production, the Swedish glass factory Kosta Boda, where Vallien has worked since 1969. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed, this book is a must for contemporary glass collectors and others who follow Scandinavian art, figurative sculpture, and new approaches to traditional materials and processes.Read More