Vera Molnar's 'Icône 2020' Glass Sculpture Exhibited in Venice Alongside Retrospective

Vera Molnar, a 97-year-old French geometric abstraction pioneer, presents 'Icône 2020', a 60 x 60 cm sculpture crafted from Murano glass with gold leaf inclusions, at New Murano Gallery in Murano, Venice, from October 23 to 31, 2021. Curated by Francesca Franco, this exhibition coincides with her French retrospective, which includes recent tapestries and runs until January 9, 2022, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, following a summer showing at Espace de l'Art Concret in Mouans-Sartoux. The glass piece reconfigures her 1975 acrylic painting 'Computer icône 2', a 110 x 110 cm work featuring 100 irregular white trapezoids on a gold ground, created using early computer algorithms to introduce what Molnar termed '1% disorder'. In 'Icône 2020', gold leaf scattered unevenly during the molten glass molding process disrupts the original grid, allowing light to play through transparencies and reflect off the surface, transforming the artwork into a material exploration of luminosity. A monographic article on Molnar will appear in the December issue of artpress, publishing in late November. The sculpture's production involved collaboration with master glassmakers from Murano, highlighting the growing role of artisanal techniques in contemporary art.