A Sudden Glint of Steel, a contemporary free-standing sculpture of borasilicate glass by American artist Rex Cravat (born August 10, 1947) is particularly interesting for its use of Baroque concepts in its composition and execution and for the manner in which the inherent qualities and working characteristics of molten glass are used by Mr. Cravat to create fine art sculptures.The unfinished piece, which measures 7" high by 7" wide by 9" long, depicts a white-tail buck deer who, in mid-leap over a fallen log, is reacting to an alarming sign to his right: the "glint of steel" suggested by the title which implies the threatening presence of a hunter to the deer. The title, by its suggestion of a reason for the buck's behavior, adds to the viewer's appreciation of the piece because we realize that it was the artist's intention to show the animal instinctively reacting to a life or death situation at the first instant of its awareness of the threat.
This implied presence of an unseen participant in the drama as well as the viewer's sense of seeing a "slice of time" or a frozen instant of a dramatic event are qualities usually associated with Baroque art.
The viewer's eye is led in one of three major spiral movements as the piece is examined. These compositional spirals begin at three places in the base of the piece: at either of the outside rocks on which the tilted log rests and at the base of the log itself. Each spiral passes through a gnarled limb protruding from the log (which is the sole attachment point of the deer to the rest of the piece -see illustration) and into the deer's body where it moves through the twisted neck and culminates in the buck's rack of antlers. These spiraled movements in the composition help define the style of the piece as Neo-Baroque, as does the fully 3-dimensional quality of the composition, which "works" well from any viewing angle.
The two main linear movements through the piece - the buck's body and the tilted log - are diagonals, another characteristic of Baroque composition.
Open space around the sculpture is energized in the Baroque manner by the negative space within the composition and by the elements - tree limbs, antlers and the deer's legs - which jut from the piece. The flow of negative space through the piece makes it difficult to clearly define the limits of the space occupied by the sculpture.
The borasilicate glass used by Mr. Cravat is shaped using the flameworking technique: rods of glass (which vary from 4mm to 25.4mm in diameter) are made molten in. a 5,000 degree F. flame comprised of an oxygen/propane mixture and then, with the glass at a working temperature of between 1,900 and 2,100 degrees F., it is shaped by "...pushing, pulling, twisting, squeezing and whatever tooling it takes to get it into the shape I want," says Cravat, adding that he also takes advantage of the tendency of glass to draw into a ball-shape when it is heated. Most of his wildlife scenes are made in segments, assembled and then annealed in a kiln to relieve stress in the glass at attachment points.
The wildlife scenes specialized in by Mr. Cravat are characterized by their anatomical accuracy, the frequent inclusion of more than one type of animal or bird in a scene, by the sense of an instant from a life or death drama being shown, by the large scale he works in (relative to the size of the work done by the few other American flameworkers who make fine art pieces rather than "novelty glass" with the technique) and by the various types of finishing processes he uses on his w6rk, such as gold and silver coatings applied by vaporizing the metal with his torch and causing it to deposit on the piece or by "sandblastingl' the glass to give it a frosted appearance.
Sundance Cravat, Rex's father, introduced Rex to flameworking when Rex was 17 years old by showing him how to make a simple piece of novelty glass. Now, at 35 years of age, Rex has constantly wooked for 18 years to improve his glasswork and raise it from the level of cheap novelty glass seen at carnivals to the type of work shown in galleries and museums as fine art. Any of his pieces can be dated, he says, by the improvements he has introduced over the years in terms of construction, finish and tooled anatomical details. A Sudden Glint of Steel can be dated, he said, because of the shape of the deer's skull, which was partially formed with a new tool he made in March of 1983 when he made the piece.
A Sudden Glint of Steel, will, when finished, be selectively sandblasted to make certain elements of the piece translucently frosted to contrast with other elements which will be left in their naturally transparent state. It will be mounted on a base of walnut wood approximately 5" high by 11" square.
At present, Rex Cravat is assembling a group of glass wildlife sculptures to be shown later this year at an as yet undecided location in Tucson, Arizona; A Sudden Glint of Steel is the second of this series which includes a scene of wild horses fighting, a hunting dog flushing a pheasant, a Bald Eagle plummeting to catch a fleeing rabbit and other dramatic wildlife scenes. Each of these pieces, he says, will show the instant before the climax of the action depicted when the climax is inevitable but the outcome of it is not absolutely certain - a guiding idea which, I believe, is responsible for the Neo-Baroque qualities which can be so clearly seen in A Sudden Glint of Steel.
This essay was written by Jerry Ferrin for an ART 118 class taught by Mr. Parry and Staff at the University of Arizona, and was submitted on 4-21-83. Much of the information in this paper comes from personal interviews with Rex Cravat on 4-19-83 and 4-20-83.
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