Ann Robinson

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1944

Wide bowl

  • 1999
  • Glass - 45% lead crystal
  • Purchased, 1999
  • 210 x 540mm
  • 99/61

I see red, 5 December 2007 - 23 November 2008

Quietly but assuredly, Ann Robinson’s Wide Bowl carries and contains an intense, concentrated red that seems to glow from within.

If the expression ‘life is a bowl of cherries’ means that everything is pretty good, what does a cherry-coloured bowl mean?

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • Ann Robinson has often used the bowl form in her work, seeing it as a metaphor for human existence, in the sense that the same shape has been used for food and ceremonial purposes in almost every culture and time period. In Wide Bowl, the strength of the glass allows the short stem to successfully support the wide, shallow dish and the relatively high proportion of lead crystal (45%) in the glass mixture adds to its translucency and richness of colour. Robinson was born in Auckland and studied art at the University of Auckland. She has won many awards, including the Philips Glass Award in 1984 and 1986, and the Winstone Biennale Award for Craft in 1987. Robinson has exhibited her work worldwide and it was featured in the New Zealand craft works at Expo in Brisbane in 1988 and in ‘Treasures of the Underworld’ at the World Expo in Seville in 1992. Robinson has also taught at the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School in the United States.

    (2003 label)