Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Romanian, English and French, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Greetings gracious viewers, and welcome to today’s Enlightening Entertainment. Today, we are going to visit a Romanian art glass exhibition in Canada, to enjoy the beautiful creations that are exquisite in color, shape, and design.

This exhibition is part of the city-wide celebration known as “Montreal, City of Glass 2010,” joined by over 100 exhibitions and activities exploring all aspects of glass. The event was made possible through the kind support of the Museum of the Masters and Artisans of Quebec.

My name is Stéphane Dion. I am the Deputy of the Saint-Laurent– Cartierville. This is my museum, in the sense that it belongs to me, in the sense that it is in my county. I am very proud of it. This year we have a Romanian exhibition.

Hi, my name is Natalie and I am here to visit the Romanian glass expo – very beautiful! This is my first time ever seeing work like this and I’m intrigued and inspired so enjoy for yourself. I know I will, thank you.

Romania has a long tradition of making glass ornaments. The sophisticated techniques of glass making, such as glass blowing and glass fusing, have been passed from generation to generation. With the country’s fine sand, the artisans produce beautiful glassware with great creativity. While their high-quality glassware is functional, it also adds warmth and style to homes.

Now, Ms. Madalina Munteanu, the representative of the Romanian glassware company, Artgeorgies, will introduce to us the colorful world of Romanian glass art.

I think it started in Romania as being unique, after that it was brought to Europe and America. And after that, this type of work started being used by different other companies. But this type of work has a lot of fineness and uses a very good quality glass.

Usually, if you put together two glasses from different companies, with this kind of product, you can see very well the quality of glass that is used by the art. It’s a very fine glass, and it’s a very unique art work, that the client has the possibility to use it in his own home, in his own environment.

Blown glass is one of Romania’s popular glass collectibles for its artistry. With a blow tube, the molten glass bubble can be transformed into different designed shapes. Mr. Ion Tămâian is a renowned Romanian glass artist. Graduated from the Ion Andreescu Institute of Fine Arts in 1982, Mr. Tămâian has been working on fine arts, especially the glass domain, for more than two decades.

He incorporates various art materials into his blown glass and thus creates unique artistic expressions. His prolific artworks have been displayed in national and international exhibitions as well as galleries around the world. He is the owner of the Ion Art Glass firm.

Mr. Ion Tămâian is a very well known artist in Romania. He does a lot of art works from blown glass, with a lot of mixed materials, like we see here, these are dancers from blown glass, and masks. Of course we can see other products, vases, and a lot of elements that you can use in special interiors, in your homes.

Mosaic is another form of glass art expression. It takes an artist’s talent and skills to create mosaic masterpieces. From designing, sketching on paper, selecting glass, painting and backing the glass, to cutting and assembling the work, each step requires the artist’s meticulous expertise and an eye for details. The following mosaic work uses the technique of double glazing, which fuses two layers of glass in the kiln.

They have the ability to create different subjects from fused glass and mosaic, and they can work for private houses and different themes. They do reproduction like this reproduction of the work of Van Gogh. And something very interesting is that they produce all the materials that are used in this painting or work, mosaic work.

This is a mixed technique: We have double-glazed glass mosaic, we have this tone called mosaic. It’s actually still glass but it’s spaced glass. And we have the fused element of glass, which creates these three dimensional stories of the painting.

So it’s not only plain glass, it’s in relief.

And the petals of the flowers are in fused glass, so it’s melted glass.

Everything is hand-made, so it’s quite a work.

For this company, we have more artists who work, it’s not only one. There are young artists who have finished the art university. And usually for a painting like this, only one artist works to create it.

Seeking quality works of museum standard, artisans would carefully select the type of mosaic to use to ensure the best outcome. The following work, a Byzantine-style panel depicting Blessed Mary and Baby Jesus, utilizes a special kind of mosaic tile which allows the lines and colors to be seen in maximum detail.

The unique characteristic of this type of mosaic is the fact that the producer of it has a certificate for this mosaic. It’s called the George’s mosaic, and it permits the cutting of the glass in very, very small pieces, which permits for the features of the face to become more natural and create the line as in real person.

This type of mosaic has received in Europe… three gold medals in the Inventic Saloons. And this is the main characteristic and the high point, the fact that it can be cut in very small pieces.

Hand painted fused glass is another type of glass artwork. Fused glass paintings are achieved through firing paints in a kiln, so the colors can be highly durable.

This is an example of a fused glass technique, which means that the hand paint, it’s made first on the glass. And after all the pieces of glass are put in the oven and burnt at over 800 Centigrade, that creates the possibility for the color to become more resistant in time, and actually it has a guarantee of 50 years. It doesn’t need any redone of the colors or the shape.

These are hand painted fused glass, decorative objects. By fusing them at over 800 Centigrade, the color enters the glass, so it stays, it can be washed, it can be used in the rain or in the sun. The painting doesn’t suffer any change.

Next, we are going to see artworks of the Romanian artist Mr. Şerban Popa. Born in 1946, Mr. Şerban Popa graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts “Nicolae Grigorescu.” He has been honored with several awards, including the “Golden Palette” Prize by the International Federation of Commerce, Industry and Economics in France in 1980.

His creations reflect the simplicity and sophistication presented in the works of the internationally renowned Romanian sculptor, Mr. Constantin Brâncuşi.

These products are art works actually, from the Romanian artist that has studied a lot the shape and form of glass, and tone, and time.

Şerban Popa is one of the well-known artists, because he has his own artwork and pieces that are shownnot in glass but in stone. We all know Brâncuşi, so if someone can make a connection to the Romanian art, he should think of Brâncuşi. (Okay.) He was a genius in sculptures, and I think that his followers are in an exhibition here in Montreal.

The glass exhibition also presents decorative glass items from Euro Design, a glassware company owned by the Art Nouveau French master, Émile Gallé. The glass art of that period features decorative motifs borrowed from nature. Art Nouveau artists, such as Émile Gallé, Jean Daum, and Charles Schneider, created art deco masterpieces that enhance people’s daily life with the beautiful artistic expressions.

These are Euro Design company products. These are Gallé-type of products. They are hand-made. They are decorative items from special glass. The types of products that are made from these producers are Gallé, Daum Nancy, and Schneider.

Let us now find out what the attendees think about the Romanian glass exhibition.

Halo. My name is Fadya. I just saw the exhibition. I really liked the Romanian glass, yes. I thought it was wonderful! It's hard work, especially the little things right here behind me which are light, thin, and beautiful to behold.

It’s certainly unique, the shapes are unique. This is my first time seeing glasswork like this, so different and bended in different shapes. So I do like the uniqueness of the glasswork.

This is the way that we can come and each individual can kind of receive something from another culture on their own and they take their time to explore it.

It’s a very nice event with people and artists from all over the community, taking the time to expose to us what’s part of their soul, what’s part of their culture, what’s part of colors of culture.

I’m blown away by the quality of the work, by the differences and the diversity of the art. And I’m just very impressed and pleased to be here.

We thank all the Romanian artists for sharing their talents and inspirations to people everywhere. Our special thanks go to Mr. Stéphane Dion for promoting intercultural understanding, and Ms. Madalina Munteanu for leading us through the exhibition. May the beauty of Romanian art creations further enrich our world.

Beautiful viewers, thank you for joining us today on Enlightening Entertainment. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. Up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May you enjoy many joyous moments with your loved ones.