Image via objetosconvidrio.blogspot.com.au
German-born artist Klaus Moje was a revolutionary maker, best known as the founder of the Australian National University’s Glass Workshop and, later, Canberra Glassworks.
Moje died on the weekend – just a few weeks shy of his 80th birthday – after a prolonged illness. He was considered a legend not only within the Australian glass scene, but internationally. His art was central to making Canberra Australia’s glass centre and putting Australia on the international map.
Moje pioneered a fused glass technique, working with cold glass sheets that had been hand-cut into strips and then painstakingly mapped out and then fused in the kiln. On occasion, he would use shaped molds to form a bowl or a plate – but more as a historical nods than a utilitarian object.
Klaus Moje; Photo Angie McDuff, Image courtesy Sabbia Gallery
American writer Bob Hicks described Moie’s technique : ‘It’s a rigorous, more analytical and sculptural process, one that thinks of glass less as a liquid than as a solid, and some of the skills it requires are similar to those a master of inlaid wood veneers might employ: exquisite joinery that makes a vivid whole of many unlike things.’
He has been described as ‘painting with glass’, particularly in his later work which gravitated to two-dimensional panels that from a distance could be mistaken as painting.
Moje encouraged – and celebrated – conceptual thinking equally as technical skill. In an interview he described himself: ‘As an artist I’m there; I’m a sponge. I transform what I see into my work. I am an artist living in my time.’
He never strayed from his love of the medium. ‘I believe glass loves me. My whole life has circled around this wonderful material … I know my focus is glass and will always be glass. This is my choice. This is my material, and I am in love with it’,’ he said.
Image courtesy the artist’s estate
A German who defined an Australian scene
Born in Germany in 1936 to a family of glass workers, he studied glass art Rheinbach and Hadamr, and began his artistic career creating carved and polished glass sculptures, before discovering fused glass techniques that would come to define his work.
Moje was invited to set up a glass program at ANU’s Canberra School of Art in 1982. It was like no other at the time, turning to coldworking techniques rather than just glassblowing. Today the ANU’s Glass Workshop is considered a leading glass centre with an international reputation.
Moje was also instrumental in setting up the Canberra Glassworks in the former Kingston Powerhouse in 2007. The venue is a tourist destination, where visitors can not only witness the process of the hot shop, but anyone can have a go themselves – with weekend drop in one-on-one classes. He remained a board member until his death.
Moje retired from teaching more than two decades ago and had been living and working on his far south coast property.
Image courtesy the artist’s estate
A painter in glass
Portland, Oregon is known as “glass city” in the US and the glass manufactured by Bullseye Glass in Portland is standard for both Canberra’s glass program and Moje’s personal artistic practice.
In June 2007, Moje was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. The Portland Panels showed almost 70 glass works large and small from roughly the past 30 years – some measuring as large as 6 x 4 feet.
Bruce Guenther, the Portland Museum’s chief curator, pointed out the essentially painterly aspect of Moje’s work and its connection to such movements as the Bauhaus school, Russian Constructivism and the Op Art movement of the 1960s
As the museum retrospective attested, Moje remained true to his vision of a rigorous and painterly abstract geometry, taking on a fluidity and freedom as he gained mastery over his technique with the years.
The retrospective at the Portland Art Museum was quickly followed in 2009 by the retrospective Klaus Moje: Painting with Glass at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York CityHis works are held in more than 60 public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Moje was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia in 2006 for his service to visual arts.
He is survived by his wife, Brigitte Enders, and children.
