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Local’s Tiffany mosaic to be shown at New York exhibit

Erica Robbie
The Aspen Times
Aspenite Carl Heck's Tiffany stained-glass mosaic will be on-display later this spring at a rare exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. Erica Robbie/The Aspen Times

From a rural farm in Missouri to a little place called Aspen — to Paris, Tokyo and scores of international cities in between — Carl Heck’s passion for collecting and selling Tiffany stained glass has taken him places.

In May, the private art dealer and longtime Aspen local will travel to New York, where his rare Tiffany mosaic will be on-display at one of the more “prestigious” exhibitions of his career.

In May 2018 the Corning Museum of Glass will curate “Tiffany’s Glass Mosaics,” the first museum exhibition to solely feature artist Louis C. Tiffany’s mosaics.



“It’s only Tiffany mosaic pieces — no (Tiffany) lamps, windows, paintings, art, glass,” Heck emphasized. “That’s never been done before.”

The exhibition will feature a selection of mosaics from museums, libraries and private collections from all over, according to the Corning Museum’s website.




“When you hear the words ‘Tiffany’ and ‘glass,’ you may immediately think of leaded glass windows or luminous lamps, but the artist Tiffany expressed his passion for color and glass most innovatively in the technique of mosaic,” the site states.

Exhibition curators at the Corning Museum could not be reached for comment.

“(Tiffany) mosaics are so, so rare,” Heck said. “Very few people own them. … Most collectors, dealers have never had any.”

Scrolling through images of his gold and green stained-glass mosaic on his iPhone, Heck’s eyes light up as his mind travels back a century or two.

“(Scholars) estimate this was made around 1895 to 1990,” Heck explained. “That’s another reason I do this. I meet really smart people — scholars with doctorates and such, researchers.”

For Heck, who grew up on a little farm in northern Missouri and matriculated at Northwest Missouri State University, the life of an Aspen-based private art dealer was “a very alternative path.”

Back in his hometown “you either become a school teacher or a farmer,” Heck said.

The Missouri native’s unique Tiffany pieces have been featured at museums in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Dallas, as well as countries across the world.

“Tiffany’s Glass Mosaics” at the Corning Museum of Glass will run May 20 to Jan. 7, 2018.

For more information about the mosaics, visit http://www.cmog.org/collection/exhibitions/tiffanys-glass-mosaics.

erobbie@aspentimes.com

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