In This Case: Gomer by Hank Murta Adams July 10, 2008

We'd like to welcome three new contributors to Eye Level: Georgina Bath, Edward Bray, and Bridget Callahan. All work at the Luce Foundation Center, our open study/storage facility displaying over thirty-three hundred objects from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. They will be writing periodically about artworks that can be found at Luce. Georgina begins by looking at a special piece of glass.

Gomer, by Hank Murta Adams

One of the wonderful aspects of the Luce Foundation Center is that you can access detailed information on every single artwork simply by browsing the digital records on the Center's computer kiosks. The Luce Center opened to the public in July of 2006 after an extensive renovation of the museum's building. Staff enjoyed controlled mayhem while the museum was closed as we strove to research and write about more than 3,300 objects and 1,200 artists in just a few years.

One object will always stick in my mind: Gomer by Hank Murta Adams. The label for this object was the very first one I wrote when I joined the staff back in September of 2003, and I was particularly intrigued by this object. The rough, opaque surface evokes dense plastic or painted metal, so I was surprised to discover that it is actually made from cast glass. It just doesn’t look how glass is supposed to look! The color also struck me as unusual, though it turns out that this was completely accidental—it was the color that was available at the factory where Adams acquired his glass.

The glass aisle is one of the most popular destinations in the Luce Center, perhaps because it is also one of the most colorful. I love the variety of works we have there, but Gomer will always be my favorite because he was the first I wrote about. He looks slightly incongruous when compared to the delicate, polished surfaces of the blown and flameworked creations, and I like to speculate that the strange, yellow character’s expression shows disdain for the brilliance that surrounds it.

• Hank Murta Adams, glass, Luce Foundation Center for American Art, American Art,
  Smithsonian American Art Museum