John Gilbert Luebtow

John Gilbert Luebtow was born on April 2, 1944 and has consistently addressed fundamental sculptural issues throughout his career: line, form, space, and light. These are broad considerations, to be sure; to a certain extent, they are inherent to all visual art media. What is significant in Luebtow’s fidelity to this set of issues is not only his tenacity in the unraveling of their mysterious laws, but also the extraordinarily wide range of approaches he has drawn to them. The mystery he pursues is the technical spiritual identify of his medium.

Luebtow searches within the sovereign form of his subjects for the abstract evidence of the energetic rhythm of movement. At times this search may appear divergent and often bifurcated:  one venue yielding images of bondage constraint and containment evoking a mixture of pleasure and pain; another emanating variations of surface patterns that are highly stylized, manipulating and controlling visual movement in and on the form, while defining the form within the glass.  Yet another evolving through a progression of smaller Marquette sized pieces containing wave-like patterns of intricately bent glass presented in single and double free-standing metal encasements, come of which are hinged to allow the viewer to alter their relationships.