The Transformative Golden Glass

With an intriguing title, Golden Glass is a telling of the story of an ancient artistry technique, loved by the Romans, which has been revived and brought to new horizons by one New York artist, Miriam Ellner. I was first introduced to verre églomisé (the French term for the artistic process of painting on the reverse face of glass) in the early 1990s while I was studying Americana as a graduate student. This unique decorative method was extensively used in framed mirrors and clock faces during the Federal era in the early years of the 19th century, however, it dates back to ancient Roman times. At the time that I studied the history of decorative arts, verre églomisé had little scholarship and was more of a footnote in reference books since it seemed to belong to history rather than to contemporary art. It was decades later that I met Ellner and learned how she revived the method with a fresh take, reinventing and shaping it into a completely new practice. Her first monograph, Golden Glass, was recently published. It reveals her spectacular achievement and the full potential of the ancient verre églomisé to transform the contemporary interior.

Collaborating with some of the world’s most celebrated interior designers, Ellner not only discovered the ancient method, but also, through years of experimentation, developed it in her own voice, turning verre églomisé into a new decorative method that has reflective qualities unlike any other surface treatment. Her enormous panels in glass add layers, textures, reflections, and illuminations to interiors, and unlike paintings or wallpaper, they are constantly moving and shifting with the change of light, with a fresh appearance at different times of the day. Glittering in the sun, static in dark, and appearing almost like living creatures. Through her innovation, Ellner has become the world’s ambassador of verre églomisé.

Even though I met Ellner years ago and have visited her studio numerous times to see her and her team at work, marveling at the panels as they shine through the large windows of her beautiful Chelsea studio, the new monograph sheds light on her personal story, her journey, and the evolution of her art. Her own essay included in the book is the one I loved the most. While she began as a professional dancer performing across the globe, she always loved making things by hand. The Singer sewing lessons she attended as a child instilled in her a passion for the crafts. When she danced at the Rachel Harms Dance Company, she also designed and made the costumes. But the turning point was when she was first introduced to verre églomisé, named after Jean-Baptiste Glomy, an 18th-century French dealer who sold drawings framed by glass borders glinting with gold. “Verre églomisé,” she recalls, “opened the door for me to explore the realms of reflectivity, opacity, and translucency.”

Whereas artisans who created historical verre églomisé utilized mainly enamel paint, often adorning it with a touch of gilding, under Ellner’s hands metals have become the primary tool. Thin leaves of precious metals including yellow, white, red gold, platinum, mica powder, and crushed abalone are all employed into enormous sheets of glass. Furthermore, another one of her important innovations is in her visual images and patterns. When she is abstracting nature and other subject matters, her panels are most successful when she incorporates geometrical forms and patterns, bringing layers of architectural vocabulary into the interiors.

The chapter Commissions in the monograph, published by Point Leaf Press, is particularly compelling, as it documents her extensive collaborations with interior designers, focusing on the relationships that brought masterful commissions, depicting her bespoke work by demonstrating the power of her verre églomisé to transform spaces into dream homes. If the success of revivals of ancient crafts is measured by the extent of innovation and the ways they are being tailored to the zeitgeist, Miriam Ellner’s reviving of verre églomisé is certainly a success story.