Richard Jolley ~ Sculptor of Glass at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

Written by Otis Freeman Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:21

Montgomery, AL - The exhibition Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass, 1985-Present at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts on exhibition through February 4. In this first museum retrospective of Richard Jolley’s art, there are no less than ten different categories of work ranging from the early 1980s through today.  During his career, Jolley moves seamlessly between various media, from glass and bronze to works on paper.  Included are examples of his vessels, monoliths, blue line drawings, reliefs, torsos, busts, works on paper, mixed media assemblages, and the Tabula Rasa series.  He is best known for his critically acclaimed Totem Series that integrates busts, torsos, and other forms into colorful assemblages some of which stand six feet tall.

Jolley’s work ranges from playful to serious. The influence of European modernists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse is seen in some works, Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brancusi in others.

While the vast majority of artists who work in glass congregate in the Pacific Northwest, Jolley chooses to live in his native East Tennessee and to address issues of form and content often unlike those common to the Studio Glass Movement.  This geographical and conceptual distance gives him a perspective that has never been subject to the trends and dictates of the movement.

The exhibition drawn from Richard Jolley’s personal collection is part of a nine-city national tour developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services of Kansas City, Missouri.  It is curated by Richard Gruber, Director, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, and Stephen Wicks, Curator, Knoxville Museum of Art.  In Montgomery, it will be accompanied by a small concurrent exhibition of glass vessels made by Jolley’s wife and assistant, Tommie Rush.

Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass, 1985-Present is sponsored locally by Regions Bank, Harmon Dennis Bradshaw, Barganier Davis Sims Architects, and Morgan Stanley.

As the oldest fine arts museum in Alabama and one of the South’s premier cultural attractions the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is noted for its outstanding collection of 19^th and 20^th century American paintings and sculpture, which includes the Blount Collection of American Art; Old Master prints, Southern regional art, and decorative arts.  With more than 155,000 visitors annually, the MMFA provides stimulating educational programs that accompany the many temporary exhibitions each year.

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is located in the Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery, Alabama. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM; Thursday from 10 AM to 9 PM; and Sunday from noon to 5 PM. Admission is free and donations are welcome.  For more information visit the web site at : www.mmfa.org

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, a department of the City of Montgomery, is supported by funds from the City and County of Montgomery and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association.  Programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.