Bernard Heesen Glass bowl in orange · Studio De Oude Horn, The Netherlands · 1980s/90s

Bernard Heesen (born 1958 in Leerdam) is one of the most important contemporary glass artists in the Netherlands. After studying architecture in Delft (1977 to 1984), he decided against building and for glass. His teacher was his own father, Willem Heesen, who founded Studio De Oude Horn in Acquoy near Leerdam in 1977. Bernard Heesen has been working there as an independent artist since 1986, and since 1995 he has managed the studio – a workshop that is one of the most distinguished addresses in the international studio glass scene and where Lino Tagliapietra and Andries Copier were also guests at times.

This bowl dates from Heesen's work and is dated to the 1980s to 1990s. It is mouth-blown – at De Oude Horn, all pieces are created in a performative, collaborative work on hot glass, in which the randomness of the flowing material deliberately becomes a design element. This very tension between control and the hot material's will of its own is Heesen's trademark.

The bowl presents itself in a warm, saturated orange. The wall is soft and true to the material, every curve bears the trace of the free glassmaker's hand. With a diameter of 21.5 centimeters and a height of 12 centimeters, the piece has a prominent size – clearly a design object, not a pure utility bowl.

A collector's item of Dutch studio glass art, clearly attributable and with character. For all those who are not looking for another vase, but an independently designed glass object.

Dimensions: Diameter 21.5 cm · Height 12 cm