Howard Ben Tré
American, 1949 - 2020Glass Towers , 2006
On view
Cast glass, cast bronze, gold leaf, patina, granite base
Dimensions118 × 10 × 10 in. (299.7 × 25.4 × 25.4 cm)
Courtesy of the Isabel Foundation, L2017.16
Howard Ben Tré studied under Dale Chihuly at Rhode Island School of Design; unlike Chihuly, who is known for blown glass, Ben Tré works in cast glass. He is a pioneer in the process of pouring molten glass into a mold of compacted sand—a process known as sand casting. After the glass is poured it will slowly cool in the mold, which sometimes can take months. Internal elements like carbon and air bubbles ascend in the mold and then freeze into place as the sculpture cools. He often adds additional elements, like bronze, to the sculpture to create a variety of color and density. The towers on each side of this gallery were commissioned by collectors Sherwin and Shirley Glass to flank the front doors of their home in Georgia.
