Forget the solemn medieval iconography and florid gothic-revival motifs: in the hands of modern-minded artists and designers, colorful stained glass—stripped down to its bare essentials—feels like a fresh idea.
THROUGH A GLASS BRIGHTLY
A striped paper lantern mimics the stained-glass windows of designer Synnöve Mork’s summer house in Gotland, Sweden.
TEMPLE OF LIGHT
Completed in 2015, Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin (in the city’s Blanton Museum) was the artist’s final project—and the only building he ever designed. The 33 mouth-blown glass windows echo Kelly’s color-block art.
PAINTER’S PALETTE
An unconventional combination of hues—rusty orange, ultraviolet, aquamarine—brings electric energy to the entrance hall of a home in Burgundy, France.
CHROMATIC SCALE
Frances Merrill of Reath Design installed stained-glass panes throughout an actress’s 1937 Los Angeles home for a fitting dose of Arts and Crafts–inspired creative energy.
ORGANIC PHENOMENON
In rich shades of sapphire, ruby, emerald, and peridot, chunky stained-glass panes shine like unpolished gemstones embedded in the rough plaster walls of Sardinia’s Hotel Cala di Volpe, designed by the late French architect Jacques Couelle.
POWER GRID
In the entryway of a Milanese apartment building designed by Gio Ponti, a seemingly random scattering of colorful panes turns a tight grid window into a quotidian work of art.
COLOR THERAPY
Sculptors Jean-Michel Othoniel and Johan Creten conserved the original frosted-glass window in their 1840s house in Sète, France, pulling its shapes and hues throughout the space.
SACRED GEOMETRY
Take a pilgrimage to Henri Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France, where the artist reimagined his cut-paper collages and line drawings as awe-inspiring windows and murals.
This article originally appeared in volume 7 of Frederic Magazine. Click here to subscribe!