Baldwin & Guggisberg
Philip and Monica have been working together for almost forty years. Below is
a text that captures much of their approach. Excerpt from "The Arch of Glass",
La Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre, 2011.
A Journey of Beginnings
There’s no distinction really between an idea and its manner of expression. The two are joined at the hip. It's a marriage contract, for better or for worse. Music is made from an instrument, even as the idea flows from the human mind. The quality of the instrument counts, as Stradivarius knew.
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Baldwin & Guggisberg
Baldwin & Guggisberg Biography
Curriculum Vitae
Monica Guggisberg 1955, Bern
Philip Baldwin 1947, New York
Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin have been working as a team since 1980. For twenty years their studio was in Switzerland, then in 2001 they moved to Paris. In 2015 they moved to rural Wales, with a view over the hills; a third act in a long nomadic journey.
Solo Museum Exhibitions
2012 'Au delà du verre', Museum für angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt (cat.)
2011 'Au delà du verre', Musée Ariana, Geneva (cat.)
2004 'Cirque de Spheres', Mudac Museum, Lausanne (cat.)
2002 'Battuto 2002', Ebeltoft Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark (cat.)
2001 Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (cat.)
Installations
Installations in numerous public and private spaces across Europe and USA.
Design Collaborations
Best & Lloyd, London
Hergiswil Glas, Hergiswil, Switzerland
Nestlé, Vevey
Nouvelstudio, Mexico City
Rosenthal Glas & Porzellan AG, Selb
Steuben Glass, Corning/NY, USA
Venini, Venice
Public Collections
Alexander Tutsek Stiftung, München; American Craft Museum, New York; Berner Design Stiftung; Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; Chrysler Museum; Norfolk VA; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning; Denver Art Museum; Die Neue Sammlung, München; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Ernsting Stiftung Alter Hof, Coesfeld-Lette; Fond Cantonal de Beaux Arts, Lausanne; Fond Cantonal de Décoration, Genève; Gewerbemuseum Winterthur; Glasmuseum Ebeltoft; Glasmuseum Hentrich, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; IMA, Indianapolis Museum of Art; Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile Alabama; Mudac, Lausanne; Musée Ariana, Genève; Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris; Musée du Verre, Sars Poteries; Museo del vetro Murano; Museum Bellerive, Zürich; Museum für Kunsthandwerk Berlin; Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Hamburg; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; Palm Springs Art Museum; Swiss National Collection of Applied Art; The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
Selected Publications
In Search of Clear Lines, Benteli Verlag, Bern, 1998, 178 pages
Hot Glass Cold Glass, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, 2001, 84 pages
Battuto 2002, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, 2002, 60 pages
Circus of Spheres, Mudac, 5 Continents, 2004, 88 pages
L’Arche de Verre, Ceramique et Verre, 2011, 96 pages
Au delà du Verre/Beyond Glass, 5 Continents, 2011, 192 pages
Awards
Bavarian State Prize
Grand Prix des Arts Appliqués, Lausanne
Grants
Commission for Applied Art, Canton of Bern
Federal Commission for Applied Arts
Ikea Foundation
National Endowment of the Arts
Baldwin & Guggisberg Description
Philip and Monica have been working together for over thirty-five years. Below is a text that captures much of their approach. Excerpt from "The Arch of Glass", La Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre, 2011.
A Journey of Beginnings
There’s no distinction really between an idea and its manner of expression. The two are joined at the hip. It's a marriage contract, for better or for worse. Music is made from an instrument, even as the idea flows from the human mind. The quality of the instrument counts, as Stradivarius knew. And while Mozart's notes are the same in 1775 as in 2010, the sound won’t be, and its ability to transform and move depends both on individual interpretation and virtuosity of manipulation.
Likewise, good writing is as much about craftsmanship and a sense of language as the ideas forming the words into a coherent expression. Roger Federer's forehand, the choice of a shot, the quality of its delivery: art and craft, mind and body. In our own rather quaint, no doubt very 1960's way (levitating on Robert Pirsig’s "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"!, this was the whole point of this trajectory, to do something that allowed mind and body to merge in intention.
We came to Italian cutting techniques because we felt we had discovered a new way to expand dramatically on what we were already doing - using sandblasting as a way to cut through layers of color to create new and originally inspired patterns and ideas. In a nutshell this development also contained a neat autobiographical element. We learned our metier in Sweden where layering color through blown overlays (originally developed by Simon Gate for the Graal technique at Orrefors) was an "old" 20th century process. If we used that same technique and applied Italian cutting, originally pioneered by Carlo Scarpa in the 1930's and 40's, we could open up a vast and expanding panorama of possibilities. And for the last fifteen years, that is what we have been doing.
Battuto is a style, a manner, a tool of expression. It allows an otherwise shiny glass surface to loose it's shine, to gain in an earthy, pithy texture, to acquire depth, a matte finish. Combined with layers of colored glass, cut through, it yields a whole new way to "paint" on glass. But the tool is never the expression itself.
It's not the technique that speaks. The latter is more comparable to the key that opens the portal to the architect's mysterious dream house. Rather it is the expression of color and light and texture and pattern and shape which it permits us to reveal which takes on meaning. And we pray this may be apparent in our work. Certain techniques, over time, become signature elements in an artist's oeuvre. And this is true for us.
Seen over fifteen years we have ranged widely: standing guardians and courtesans: long undulating blown sculptural forms, stretched, whimsical, reaching for the sky; myriad sphere pieces on a very large scale - metal spines and glass spheres merging in extravagant and exuberant patterns, playing in a space of line and curve and flexing movement; standing by their side, the solid vases, evolving and ubiquitous vessels very much at the core of our work, their steadfast presence and simplicity of shape keeping them fundamentally important and beautiful for us. And now, most recently, a foray into vessels containing vessels: voyage, artefact and transport united in purpose.
The single greatest moments in any work we may make are found in the combination of very different moments of its making. The piece reveals itself, flowing out from your very own mind and body (in much the way these words and thoughts flow from our bodies). It's a process that is ultimately unfathomable, whatever we may know about the techniques. It is precisely these unknowable moments that are the most emotionally moving in the creative process.
The boats we are now doing come the closest to anything we have ever done to being autobiographical and in that sense "personal". We are migratory creatures; the history of our species is about journeys, departures, leaving and arriving, starting over. And none more so than ourselves. Our new work is both culturally and personally inclined. An autobiographical touch in a civilizational reflection. Wherever man goes he builds, laying down cultural lines which gradually transform into relics and artefacts over time’s inevitable march. Urban landscapes and complex designs grow and expand, deteriorate and decay. And on again we move, taking the memories of our exploits with us to use in the next story.
Grain, seeds, wine, oil, gold, silver, artefacts, all the ballast of our millennia old civilizations are transported down through the ages, and with them the stories themselves, the wandering of peoples all across this magnificent planetary landscape. People just like us. Seeking, questing, looking for new horizons, and carrying their culture, their history and stories on their backs, in carts, and in boats. It’s our story. It’s humankind’s story.
Baldwin & Guggisberg Resumé
Museum Collections:
Museum of Arts & Design, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Musée Ariana, Genève
Museum Bellerive, Zürich
Berner Design Stiftung. Kantonale Sammlung angewandte Kunst, Bern
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA
Castello Forzesco, Milano
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Die Neue Sammlung, München
Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv
Ernsting Stiftung Alter Hof, Coesfeld-Lette
Fond Cantonal d'art contemporain, Genève
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Glasmuseum Ebeltoft
Glasmuseum Hentrich, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo
Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg
Museo del Vetro di Murano
Musée du Verre, Sars Poteries
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris
Mudac, Mausanne (musée du design et d'arts appliqués contemporains)
Museo del Vetro, Murano
Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Berlin
Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Hamburg
Palm Springs Art Museum
Swiss National Collection of Applied Art
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
Past Exhibitions & Shows
2016
Art Palm Beach, Bender Gallery
Artgenève, TASTE contemporary craft
Life is Not a Beach, Alexander Tutsek Foundation
BRAFA, Galerie Marc Heiremans
Artmonte-carlo, TASTE contemporary craft
Habatat International, Habatat Galleries
Design Miami/Basel, Galerie Marc Heiremans
The Cathedral Collection, St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (s, cat.)
35th Anniversary Show, Etienne Gallery
Art Toronto, Sandra Ainsley Gallery
SOFA, Bender Gallery
The Salon Art + Design, Galerie Marc Heiremans
PAN Amsterdam, Etienne Gallery
2015
New Work, Etienne Gallery (s)
BRAFA Bruxelles, Galerie Marc Heiremans
Artgenève, TASTE contemporary craft
Design Miami / Art Basel, Galerie Marc Heiremans
The International Show, Galerie Marc Heiremans
Art Toronto, Sandra Ainsley Gallery
SOFA, Bender Gallery
PAN, Etienne Gallery
2014
Amphores Boats and Journeys: New Work, Sandra Ainsley Gallery (s)
PAN Amsterdam, with Etienne Gallery
2013
Suspended Mobility, David Richard Gallery (s)
SOFA, Chicago, David Richard Gallery
PAN Amsterdam, Etienne Gallery
Salon Révélations, Grand Palais, Paris
BRAFA Bruxelles, Galerie Marc Heiremans
Sanske Gallery, Zürich (s)
2012
"Au delà du verre / Beyond Glass", Museum of Applied Art, Frankfurt (s, cat.)
SOFA, Chicago, with David Richard Gallery
"Au-delà du verre / Beyond Glass", Oisterwijk, Etienne Gallery (s, cat.)
BRAFA Bruxelles, Galerie Marc Heiremans
2011
"Au-delà du verre / Beyond Glass", Geneva, Musée Ariana (s, cat.)
SOFA, Chicago, with David Richard Contemporary
Galerie des 20. Jahrhunderts, Basel
Publication of new book “L'Arche de Verre" by Revue de la ceramique et du verre, Paris France
"Vessel on Vessel", Pismo Gallery, Aspen CO
Galerie Lafôret, Verbier
2010
SOFA, Chicago, David Richard Contemporary
SOFA West, Santa Fé, David Richard Contemporary
London, Vessel Gallery at TG
Zürich, Sanske Galerie (s)
Bruxelles, BRAFA, Marc Heiremans Galerie
2009
Bruxelles, Marc Heiremans Galerie (s)
Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, European Design since 1985 (cat.)
Milano, Euroluce with designs for Venini
London, Collect, Vessel Gallery
Oisterwijk, Oisterwijk Sculptuur, Etienne Gallery (cat.)
Oisterwijk, Etienne Gallery (s)
Paris, Galerie Hélène Porée, (s)
2008
Oisterwiijk NL, Oisterwiijk Sculptuur, EvdDoel (cat.)
Chicago, Habatat Galleries (s)
European Glass Context. DK (cat.)
Paris, 6 Mandel (s)
London, Vessel Gallery (s)
Zurich, CH, Sanske Galerie (s)
2007
Toronto, Sandra Ainsley Gallery (s)
Oisterwiijk NL, Oisterwiijk sculptur, EvdDoel (cat.)
Milano, Euroluce with new designs for Venini
Tampa, FL, Baisden Gallery (s)
2006
Oisterwijk, NL. EvdDoel, 25th Anniversary Exhibition. (s)
Oisterwiijk NL, Oisterwiijk sculptur, EvdDoel (cat.)
Morat, Vieux Manoir (s)
Charlotte, NC, McColl Center for the Arts (s)
2005
Zürich, CH, Sanske Galerie (s)
Cleveland, OH, Tom Riley Galleries (s)
Oisterwiijk NL, Oisterwiijk sculptur, EvdDoel (cat.)
2004
Sunderland UK, "Cirque de Sphères" National Glasscenter (s, cat.)
Venezia, Vetri, Nel mondo. Oggi, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (cat.)
Leusden NL, "Cirque de Sphères" het Koopmanshuis,EvdDoel (s, cat.)
Lausanne, "Cirque de Sphères”, Mudac (s, cat.)
Oisterwiijk NL, Oisterwiijk sculptuur, EvdDoel (cat.)
Chicago, Habatat (s)
Cornelus, NC, Christa Faut Gallery (s)
Milano, Salone del Mobile avec VENINI
Royal Oak, MI, Annual Invitational, Habatat Galleries, (cat.)
Aspen Colorado, Pismo Gallery (s)
2003
Toronto, Sandra Ainsley Gallery (s)
Zürich, Sanske Galerie (s)
Oisterwiijk, NL, Oisterwiijk sculptuur, EvdDoel (cat.)
Tampa, Baisden Gallery (s)
Den Haag, Etienne & van den Doel (s)
Royal Oak MI, Annual Invitational, Habatat Galleries (cat.)
2002
Ebeltoft, D, Battuto 2002, Ebeltoft Glasmuseum (s, cat.)
Kijkduin, NL, Boulevard des Sculptures, (cat.)
New York, Barry Friedman Gallery (s)
Öland, Borgholm Castle, “Global Art Glass” (cat.)
Aosta, Glass Way, Museo Archeologico (cat.)
The Rachael Collection, Aspen (s)
Louisville, Glassworks Gallery, KY
2001
Tel Aviv, Eretz Israel Museum (s, cat.)
Paris, Eclat du Verre (s)
Bejing and Shanghai, Habatat Galleries (cat.)
Pontiac, Annual Invitational, Habatat Galleries (cat.)
Kijkduin, NL, Boulevard des Sculptures (cat.)
Chicago, Portia Gallery (s, cat.)
Den Haag, Etienne & van den Doel (s)
Beaver Creek, Pismo (s)
2000
Kentucky, “Millenium Glass”, Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation (cat.)
Pontiac, Millenium Exhibition, Habatat Galleries (cat.)
Cincinnati, Marta Hewitt Gallery (s)
Zulte, Belgium, Goed Werk Gallery (s)
Atlanta, Fay Gold Gallery (s)
1999
Chicago, Gallery Portia (s, cat.)
Den Haag, Gallery Rob van den Doel (s)
Öland, Borgholm Castle, “Global Art Glass in Sweden 1999” (cat.)
Zürich, Sanske Gallery (s)
1998
Sinzheim, Galerie B (s)
Kunsthalle, Bern, “We Never Promised You A Rose Garden”
Venezia, Galleria San Nicolò, “Making Connections” (s)
Venezia, “ Venezia Aperto Vetro II” (cat.)
Lausanne, Espace Arlaud, “ In Search of Clear Lines” (s)
Sars Poteries, Musée Atelier du Verre Sars Poteries (s)
New York, Barry Friedman Gallery, "In Search of Clear Lines" (s)
1997
Zürich, Museum Bellerive (s)
Den Haag, Gallery Rob van den Doel (s)
Pontiac, "25th Annual International Invitational", Habatat Galleries (cat.)
London, Stair & Company
Avenches, Les Galeries du Château (s)
Paris, Galerie l'Eclat du Verre (s, cat.)
1996
Hamburg, Gallery L (s)
Pontiac, “24th Annual International Invitational”, Habatat Galleries (cat.)
Hergiswil Glasi (s)
Venezia, Galleria San Nicolò (s, cat.)
Venezia, "Venezia Aperto Vetro" (cat.)
München, Galerie Waldrich (s)
1995
Zürich, Sanske Galerie, “Murano-Nonfoux, collaboration with Lino Tagliapietra”
Laren, NL, Singer Museum, with Gallery Rob van den Doel (s)
Venezia, “A Venitian Love Affair”, (New Glass a Venezia), Galleria Marina Barovier (cat.)
Martigny, “Venitian Tendencies”, Fondation Louis Moret (s)
Genève, Baldwin/Guggisberg, Centre des Arts Appliqués(s)
1994
La Robellaz, Gallery Garance (s)
Venezia, Zitelle, “Trasparenze d'Arte” (cat.)
Nonfoux, “Murano-Nonfoux, collaboration with Lino Tagliapietra”, video, filmed and edited by Alex Erik Pfingsttag
1993
Den Haag, Galerie Rob van den Doel (s)
Zürich, Rennweg Galerie (s)
Bremen, Kito (Monica Borgward)
1991
Bruxelles, Galerie Transparence, with Floris Meydam
Lausanne, Musée des arts décoratifs (s, cat.)
Zürich, Maya Behn Gallery (s)
Düsseldorf, Galerie Ingrid Mensendiek (s)
1990
Zürich, Maya Behn (s)
1989
New York, New Glass Gallery (s)
Lausanne, Musée des arts décoratifs, “Autour de la table”, traveling exhibition : Zürich, Museum für Gestaltung, Leuven, Museum Van Humbeeck-Piron (cat.)
Frankfurt a.M., Galerie Gottschalk-Betz (s)
Genève, Galerie Trois (s)
Lausanne, Musée des Arts décoratifs, “Expression en verre II”, Acquisitions 1987-1989 (cat.)
1988
Kanazawa, Messegelände, “The International Exhibition of Glass Craft 1988” (cat.)
Sapporo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, “World Glass Now '88”, traveling exhibition : Shimonoseki, Shimonoseki City Art Museum; Tokyo, Daimaru Grand Hall; Gifu, The Museum of Fine Arts; Osaka, Daimaru Museum (cat.)
Zürich, Margrith v. Castelberg-Stutz (s)
Lausanne, Midi-Pile (s)
1987
Hamburg and Berlin, Rosenthal Studio-Haus (s)
Arnheim, NL, Galerie Arti-Choque (s)
1986
Genève, Galerie Trois (s)
Köln, Glasgalerie (s)
Lausanne, Musée des arts décoratifs, “Expressions en verre 1'200 sculptures contemporaines”, Europe, USA, Japon (cat.)
Liège, Générale de Banque, “Contemporary Western European Sculptures in Crystal and Glass” (cat.)
Zürich, Schweizer Heimatwerk, “Schweizer Glas '86”
1985
Coburg, Kunstsammlungen der Veste, “Zweiter Coburger Glaspreis für moderne Glasgestaltung in Europa” (cat.)
Horgen, Galerie Heidi Schneider, “Glaskünstlerinnen aus Europa” (only M.G.)
Luzern, Glas-Galerie (s)
München, Kunst in Glas GmbH with Wilke Adolfsson
Paris, Galerie Quartz, with W. Adolfsson and M.Bouchard
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, “L'art du verre, Actualité Internationale”
Stuttgart, Kunsthaus Schaller (s)
1984
Boston/MA, David Bernstein Gallery (s)
Bremen, Galerie Monica Trüjen (s)
Düsseldorf, Galerie Ingrid Mensendiek (s)
Genève, Galerie Kara (s)
Luzern, Kornschütte, “Skulpturen in Glas, Situation 1984”,Glas-Galerie (cat.)
Miami/FL, Center for the Fine Arts, "Glass that Works" (cat.)
Saint-Emilion, Syndicat d'initiative, “Art Verre Vin”
Strasbourg, Galerie Paskine de Gignoux, "Verre contemporain en Europe" (cat.)
1983
Alkmaar, Galerie Het Glashuis
Bern, Käfigturm, “Vitrine 83”
Lausanne, Château de Renens (s)
München, Galerie Nordend (s)
Winterthur, Gewerbemuseum, “Schweizer Handglashütten heute”
Zürich, Schweizer Heimatwerk, “Schweizer Glaskunst”
Zürich, Galerie Margrith v. Castelberg-Stutz (s)
1982
Lausanne, Galerie Bellefontaine, "European Studio Glass '82” (cat.)
Nonfoux, Verrerie de Nonfoux (s)
(s) indicates a solo show
(cat.) indicates there was a catalogue produced for the exhibition