Thomas Stearns
Courtesy of the Estate of Thomas Stearns and Robert Beyer.
Looking back at Objects: USA is a delight partly because of the surprises it offers. One of these is a far-out fiber object, perhaps evoking a Native American or African performance ensemble, by one Thomas Stearns. Is this . . . the Thomas Stearns? The answer is yes. He is primarily known for his work as a glass designer, a métier he adopted very early by American standards. Stearns had studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he experimented with flat-fused glass (which was, at the time, about the technical limit for studio practitioners). In 1960, he won a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Italy, where he briefly trained under Paolo Venini, the great master designer in Murano.
The rest is history: he rapidly absorbed the possibilities of the medium and went on to exploit them brilliantly. Yet he had also studied fiber at Cranbrook and did not leave it behind. It would be a stretch to say that his contribution to Objects: USA reflected his better-known work in glass—about all they have in common is enthusiastic polychromy. Yet it is a good reminder that, at a time when makers were generally classified by medium, a few creative souls could not be contained by just one.
Night Image #6 in fiber. Made and designed by Thomas Stearns, USA, 1963.
55" H
139.7cm
FA148
Private Collection