page_title: Robert Kehlmann
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Kehlmann / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: “Quartet” — by Robert Kehlmann (1979). Leaded glass panel. Private collection, San Francisco. Photo: Richard Sargent (date: 1980), Kehlmann Studio Archive.
context_page_description: Robert Kehlmann is an artist and writer. He was an early spokesperson for evaluating glass art in the context of contemporary painting and sculpture. His glasswork has been exhibited worldwide and is the focus of numerous commentaries. Kehlmann's work can be found in museums and private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has written books, articles, and exhibition reviews for publications in the U.S. and abroad. In 2014 the Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass acquired Kehlmann's studio and research archives.
context_section_description: Part of a group of California artists making leaded glass panels in the early 1970s, Kehlmann emerged as a key figure in the development of contemporary American stained glass.  Formally trained in literary criticism he was self-taught as an artist. His leaded works, called “Compositions,” together with later mixed media pieces and mosaics, have been described as symbolic, subjective narratives, rendered in a “painterly tradition.”  As an art critic he was a theorist and spokesperson for the contemporary glass movement in the later part of the 20th century.
  Kehlmann received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for his work as both an artist and critic.  He has written two books about glass, and articles and exhibition reviews by him have appeared in periodicals in the U.S. and abroad.  Kehlmann has taught at the Pilchuck Glass School, the California College of the Arts, and the Miasa Bunka Center in Nagano City, Japan.   He has lectured and given workshops at many institutions including the Renwick Gallery, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design.  Kehlmann has juried and curated numerous exhibitions including a retrospective of work by Czech sculptors Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society (1980–84, 1989–92) and edited the Glass Art Society Journal (1981-1984).
  A former Chairman of Berkeley's Landmark’s Preservation Commission (1997-1999), he founded the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project in 1997. Kehlmann has lived and worked in Berkeley California since 1963. His wife, Diana Tosto Kehlmann, is a Jin Shin Jitsu practitioner and a homeopath. Their son, Ephraim, is a digital media producer living in New York City.
caption: Robert Kehlmann, “Quartet” (1979) Private Collection, San Francisco.
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