Bristish Society of Master Glass Painters Journal - Vol 24, 2001
Sarah Hall, The Colour of Light
Commissioning Stained Glass for a Church
With the dying down of the Millennium fever, now is a good time to review a book on the commissioning of stained glass. Sarah Hall, a Canadian stained glass artist, has written a 100-page A4 book, sumptuously illustrated, whose aim is ‘to demystify the process of working with stained glass artists, to establish a format for the commissioning process, and to be a guide for client and artist alike that will encourage more deeply considered, integrated and expressive artwork in our places of worship’.
The book covers in great depth the material of stained glass, techniques used, the historical side, design and commissioning, maintenance and restoration. There is a substantial chapter on the commissioning process, dealing with everything from the selection of artist insurance. The historical background is generally very useful, although the reviewer railed against the assessment of the contribution of nineteenth-century stained glass as a ‘religious art product’ and being in a ‘stylistic cul-de-sac’. The book’s illustrations are absolutely captivating, particularly the twentieth-century glass: enormous projects in contemporary buildings in churches in America and Germany. Some of the illustrations are of Sarah Hall’s own work, of which more can be seen at www.sarahhallstudio.com. Some critical comment on the illustrations would have been valuable. Is a wall with white and blue prism glass appropriate as a backdrop for an altar? And what of the baptistery with deeply coloured dale de verre glazing where it is only just possible to see the font?
Sarah hall accurately comments that the drawings on which clients and approval bodies have to make decisions vary from the vague and open ended to the precise and specific. There is surely scope for standardisation here, so that leading, just as important a part of design as glass, is shown from the outset.
If the English experience is anything to go by, most stained glass commissions are small-scale projects, mainly replacing plain or cathedral glass with stained. These projects in their own way are just as tricky as the large-scale ones, and some illustration and discussion of the issues of smaller projects would have been helpful: problems of harmonising with the architecture, the orientation of the building and existing glazing. But perhaps the trickiest issue both for artists and clients is the spiritual side – how do we plumb the deep wells of spiritual experience to produce works of art that will bring the viewers closer to the Almighty? So many stained glass designs show a paucity of religious expression, and I felt that there was scope, particularly in a book published by the Church, for much deeper consideration of this central issue.
But these points should not detract from the author’s achievement. Sarah Hall’s book is valuable reading for artists and clients.
