Robert Kehlmann, 1942-
By Dane Moffat
Millennium Byobu II, 2000, Four Seasons San Francisco.
Art history has long averted its gaze from studio glass, an irony troubled by Robert Kehlmann. Born in Brooklyn on 9th March 1942, Kehlmann became an art-world provocateur, both as an artist and critic. By working in a medium that has always been looked through and never looked at, the artist’s practice serves as a critical project about the production of art history within the studio. Kehlmann largely focuses on the interplay between line and colour to protest against the complacent act of viewing. His artworks restore agency and power to raw materials, thereby demanding the spectator to look at glass as an art-object and medium, as opposed to simply looking through it.
Kehlmann operates a largely self-taught practice, having obtained a bachelor's and master’s degree in English Literature from Antioch College (1963) and University of California, Berkley (1966). He later developed an interest in art history and practice during a tour of Europe in 1969. The artist frequently collapses studio glass, drawing, and painting into a singular method, and works across mosaic and sandblasting, too. Prior to the institutionalisation of studio glass in American art schools, Kehlmann studied at independent glass facilities, such as the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, where he later taught. He also instructed at the Miasa Bunker Centre in Nagano City, Japan, the influence of which still resonates. Japanese folded screens (byōbu), and broader cultural aesthetics, are commonly inflected across his works, most notably the Millenium Byōbu II (2000) installed at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, California. Kehlmann is also the co-founding editor of Glass Art Society Journal, a medium-specific publication of American glass arts. He laments, however, “I think I would have done far better as artist, not as critic.” He is infamous for his disputes with major critics and theoretical writings on glass as a fine art.
The artist’s major work, Composition, is a series of deconstructed stained-glass panels. These works allowed Kehlmann to explore the curatorial struggles of exhibiting studio glass. They were displayed on the wall, suspended from the ceiling, and affixed to freestanding metal frames. The artist states, “I don’t want people looking through my windows. What lies behind the compositions, aside from a source of light, has no relevance to my design.” Conceptually, Kehlmann’s works are drawings or paintings, having been realised in, and extracted from, these mediums. Each work is meditatively produced, with the artist contemplating blank canvases or singular lines for days.
Composition XXXI, 1976, opaque leaded glass panel with glass overlay, Corning Museum of Glass.
His artwork Composition XXXI (1976) appears as a childlike abstraction. Primary structures – of colour and shape – converge in a series of organic and inorganic forms. These forms are contained by lead wire yet intersect each other and morph the environment into one of chaos, thus potentially exploring ecological themes of symbiosis, synthesis, and human intervention. Kehlmann’s work largely explores the narrative properties of glass and drawing, exploring the ability of material abstraction to represent emotion, place, and states of being.
Though the artist hasn’t staged an exhibition with a museum or gallery since the late 90s, his work remains quietly pervasive in public and private collections. Most notably, two capitals of studio glass are home to an extensive body of his work: the Corning Museum of Glass and Toledo Museum of Art.
Bibliography
Halstead, Sam. “Robert Kehlmann: Beyond the Surface.” Posted December 3, 2019. Youtube, 13:32. https://youtu.be/B-4-ug07h-8?si=I8GyGR_k1nU1LcD8.
Kehlmann, Robert. “About.” Robert Kehlmann. Accessed February 22, 2025. https://robertkehlmann.com/about.
Lynn, Martha Drexler. American Studio Glass 1960-1990. Hudson Hills Press, 2004.