Sam Herman

A true master of his medium, pioneering studio glass artist Sam Herman made pieces that were expressions of himself, and they are highly sought after by collectors today, says Mark Hill

- Mark Hill

Sam Herman was a true polymath: an artist, a sculptor and teacher, whose international career spanned. nearly half a century. But it was with his progressive work in glass that he broke new ground, changing the paths of 20thcentury art and decorative arts. I first encountered Herman's art in glass in the early 2000s and was immediately entranced by its curving, often anthropomorphic forms, its vibrancy of colour and sheer 'glassiness'.

Herman was always true to the nature of his chosen material, allowing it to speak for itself-in glass the forms reflected the nature of molten glass. 'Why make glass look like something that it isn't?' he asked. As such, although he used hand moulds and paddles, he didn't blow glass into moulds, or press, cut, engrave or enamel glass. Instead, he allowed this mercurial and magical molten material to express itself during the making process, adapting his preconceived ideas as this happened. 'Glass is a dance of immediacy,' he said, and watching Herman at work was to witness a truly dramatic performance.