Narcissus Quagliata’s Work with the Figure and Dome of Light in Taiwan
While checking into the Danieli Hotel in Venice, Italy, Giorgio de Chirico removed a small, still wet oil painting from the hands of 11-year-old Narcissus Quagliata. He told Quagliata’s mother who stood nearby that her son was talented. The boy later received informal instruction at de Chirico’s studio in Rome and was convinced that he was destined to become an artist.
Quagliata, one of the most significant artists working with glass today, released his book, Archetypes and Visions in Light and Glass. From 30,000 images, the artist spent two years personally selecting the 340 that represent the best of the best from his last 40 years of work. The 240-page volume tells the stories associated with his public projects such as the largest illuminated glass ceiling in the world, The Dome of Light, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and the glass dome in Michelangelo’s Santa Maria degli Angeli basilica in Rome, Italy. The book also features comprehensive chapters on both his personal work, which focuses on the figure, as well as his commissioned works for clients. Readers and artists from every media will be astounded by this hardcover text, detailing the symbiosis of glass art, architecture, and painting.
At age 70, Quagliata continues to be much in demand, professionally and personally. Even without a Facebook page or Twitter account, he has become accessible to the general public in a way that was impossible in the early days of his career. Known for periods of reclusiveness that coordinate with artistic productivity, Quagliata has begun to feel a clash between his private life and public persona.“There is a pressure on me to share what I am, what I do, and what I think. I can now give people that are interested in my work a product that will answer 95 percent of their questions.”
Working on the book was also an exercise in closure, representing the end of one cycle in Quagliata’s creative life and the beginning of another. “It was a very good exercise to streamline out of my 40 years the best of what I have done and make it into an understandable story. What do I consider my best work in terms of importance, quality, theme? What you omit is a decision on the content of what your life means. It has been a forced examination as well as a fantastic exercise, very painful at times. Knowing that I have closed this chapter nicely, completely and presented it as best I can, gives me the peace of mind to move on to the next phase.”