In many ways, Barry Cullen was an archetypal ‘true’ studio glassmaker, particularly if you compare him to a studio potter. He fulfilled the roles of both the designer and the maker, perhaps with assistance from time to time. But Cullen did more than that as he also marketed, exhibited, sold, and fulfilled sales of his work. His work is also in museum collections, yet still fetches well under £100.
I first came to his work some years ago, when I bought an ovoid vase made by him with a band of stylised flowers and stems around the shoulders. I considered it not as a progressive artwork in studio glass, like those by Sam Herman (1936-2020), but as one that was highly technically competent, visually appealing, and of practical use. As I couldn’t find much out about him at the time, I sold it and moved on until I found another, similar, but unsigned piece lurking in a charity shop last year.
Even despite the development of AI for rapid searching of online data in any format, very little is still known about Barry Cullen – especially the most basic information. This implies that he didn’t work with any major galleries, where a CV would have been needed. He doesn’t appear to be contactable online, probably due to advanced age or, sadly, as he has passed away. What I have been able to find and present here has been scavenged from sources online and found in documents about studio glass that I have built up in my library over the years.
In a world where most artists and craftsmen have been discovered or rediscovered, there are very few opportunities left to ‘get in early’. I believe that Barry Cullen and his art glass are worthy of greater study and more recognition, and I’ll explain why here, together with information I have found on him.
Mysterious Origins
Cullen said in the online Glass Message Board that he began working with glass in 1969 (making him a very early studio glassmaker) but he didn’t specify where. There weren’t many places in London with a furnace, let alone a glassmaking course, at that time so it’s likely to have been at the Royal College of Art or The Glasshouse in Covent Garden, which had been co-founded by studio glass pioneer Sam Herman in 1969. He doesn’t appear in the list of Royal College of Art graduates, so it’s likely that he took a course with one of the five resident RCA glass graduates at The Glasshouse. However, he’s not mentioned in the Contemporary Applied Arts’ retrospective exhibition or associated catalogue on ‘The Glasshouse And Its Tree’ in 2008, so he must have gone his own way afterwards. Peter Layton opened London Glassblowing in 1976, and it’s possible that Cullen studied or worked there later on too. The next verifiable reference to him that I can find jumps us forwards to the late 1970s, when things really get going…
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