Artist of the Month
April 2022
Harry Pollitt
Santa Fe, NM-based sculptor Harry Pollitt turned his focus to the material of glass in 2010. His cast works achieve flowing, sensuous curves and negative space, with a sense of lightness and grace. His mature and distinctive aesthetic comes, in part, from 40 years as a wood sculptor with an engineering background. Pollitt is represented by Holsten Galleries, a virtual gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Harry Pollitt
About Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt began his art career sculpting in wood. For over 40 years, he showed his work in leading galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad. Then in 2009, he became keenly interested in the medium of glass. He wondered how his sculptural style would translate into glass – and color. The following year, his unique series of strikingly beautiful kiln cast crystal sculptures began to emerge. Unlike anything that has been achieved in glass casting in the past and aided by his engineering background, Pollitt achieves the same flowing, sensuous curves and negative space that make his wood sculptures so compelling. Translating that aesthetic into glass, Pollitt adds a sense of lightness and grace which is normally somewhat missing in the works of other cast glass artists.
Each sculpture begins with a solid block of wax, from which Pollitt slowly and meticulously cuts away the majority of the wax, thus liberating the form that is waiting within (to paraphrase Michelangelo). True to his wood sculpture roots, Pollitt hand sands each cast piece to obtain a surface texture that is more velvety and soft than the typical satin finishes produced by acid etching and sandblasting. Additionally, each glass sculpture is a one of a kind creation.
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Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Holsten Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.
The Alliance informs collectors, critics and curators by encouraging and supporting museum exhibitions, university glass departments and specialized teaching programs, regional collector groups, visits to private collections, and public seminars.
