On October 23, 2024, the Forest Lawn Museum (Glendale) premiered “Narcissus Quagliata: Archetypes and Visions in Light and Glass.” This is the first retrospective exhibition devoted to an artist who is among the most influential figures in art glass from the past 50 years. From technical advances in glass fusing to radical stylistic innovations, Quagliata has been instrumental in moving stained glass beyond ecclesiastical and domestic settings and into the realms of public art and avant-garde studio practices for contemporary fine art.
The exhibition, which runs until March 9, 2025, features artwork spanning more than five decades, including his early experimental stained-glass works, large-scale watercolors, fused glass and more. In 2022, Forest Lawn Museum acquired Quagliata’s 50-by-12-foot, leaded- and blown-glass mural of the cosmos. Created in 1985 for the lobby of the Pacific Bell building in Oakland, California, the window was at risk of being destroyed prior to its removal in late 2021. Major portions of the mural will be on view at the museum.
Quagliata’s “Mediterranean Treasures” series, featured prominently in the exhibition, reimagines ancient Greek and Roman statues that have been transformed after spending centuries at the bottom of the sea. Works from the artist’s “Locked Out” series, which directly addresses issues of homelessness, are also featured and humanize the plight of people experiencing homelessness, as well as individuals on the margins of society.
Much of Quagliata’s artistic practice deals with the realm of dreaming, and nowhere is this showcased more prominently than in “Wind, Fire and Time,” also called “The Dome of Light.” Inaugurated in 2008 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the dome is 100 feet wide and among the most significant public-art installations of the 21st century. The Forest Lawn Museum exhibition features two sets of preparatory watercolors that functioned as master drawings for the dome. Measuring 20 feet across, the larger set of watercolors provides viewers with a close-up view of intricate details and an inside look at the creative process.
Quagliata’s groundbreaking contributions to the history of art glass will be exhibited next to the museum’s Medieval and Renaissance stained-glass windows, created between the 12th and 16th centuries in France and Germany. This contrast with Quagliata’s work allows visitors to experience the medium of stained glass from its earliest manifestations to its most contemporary expressions.
Said Quagliata: “It’s an honor to do this at an institution like Forest Lawn, which has been collecting stained glass for more than a century. Given that so much of my work is about time and the liminal space between existence and nonexistence, I find it appropriate that this show happens on top of this hill, which is also a beautiful cemetery.”
October 23, 2024, proved a very busy day for the Forest Lawn Museum because it also launched a second art exhibition that day. Titled “Memory and Motion: The Paintings of Hratchya Hayents,” this abstract-art exhibition highlights the triumph of the human spirit and addresses themes of nationality, equality and unity. Featuring more than 20 new and recent works by Armenian-American artist Hratchya Hayents, this is the artist’s first solo exhibition and runs until January 12, 2025.
Born in Cyprus and raised in Soviet Armenia, Hayents was trained in both sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts before immigrating to America in 1980. Upon his arrival, he began exploring the world of abstract expressionism, which flourished in the United States during much of the Cold War. Serving as a vibrant means of self-expression, the style has given Hayents the freedom with which to examine political and personal experiences. forestlawn.com