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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Studio/Artist

Artist / Studio

Artist

Pinart, Robert
New Jersey

Birth Year: 1926

Date of Death: 10/01/2017

Biography: Pinart (1926-) was born in Paris, loved to draw as a young child and at age seventeen began to take night classes in art which prepared him to study at the well known Ecole des Beaux Arts. Robert received his stained glass training in the studios of three well known French stained glass artists: Max Ingrand (1908-1969), Auguste Labouret (1871-1964) and then he free-lanced with/for Jean Barillet (1912-1997). These studios were involved with restoration of 13th to 17th century windows removed from churches prior to World War II and stored in caves. Because of the scope of deterioration Robert received a foundation of stained glass work which was unusual for such a young person. But Ingrand, Labouret and Barillet were also on the cutting edge of the post-war modernistic art movement in Europe which they, and others, “translated” into stained glass. These efforts picked up momentum immediately after World War II as replacement stained glass windows were needed in war torn areas of Germany, France and England. It was this aspect of his instructors – and the modernist art movement - that greatly influenced the personal artwork and stained glass of Robert Pinart. By 1951 Pinart had moved to the United States and settled in the greater New York/New Jersey area. He briefly worked for the stained glass firm Payne-Spiers in New Jersey before spending a few years with Rambusch Studios. It was at Rambusch Studios where Pinart gained a background for his future liturgical work. The studio worked on numerous churches and synagogues, and this honed Pinart’s sense of design as he was allowed to decide personally on the width of the lead, the quality of the glass and then he could add the painted details. When Robert began to free lance on his own about 1954, it was so he would have complete control over his work, and could himself meet with the prospective clients. In the interview in Glass Art, Robert describes collaborative meetings with architect Percival Goodman and Goodman’s wife who was an interior decorator, discussing and deciding - slab glass (dalle de verre) or leaded stained glass – on over a dozen very interesting projects. When a stained glass artist freelances, he/she needs to find a studio to fabricate the work….a studio with which the artist has an understanding that he/she will make all of the artistic decisions. Robert used Cummings Studio in North Adams, Massachusetts for many years until Cummings closed several years ago. In 1993 Pinart received the very first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stained Glass Association of America and has been selected as one of the inaugural ten Senior Advisors for the American Glass Guild.