Richard Jolley: Cycle of Life

Richard Jolley: Cycle of Life illuminates the permanent installation housed within the Knoxville Museum of Art’s Bailey Hall—arguably among the most ambitious figurative glass installations in the world. It is a work that collapses traditional boundaries between craft tradition and conceptual innovations, a monumental glass and steel installation that stands as a testament to both technical virtuosity and creative ambition. The meticulously documented volume explores Jolley’s grand visual narrative, beginning with dark forest imagery and unfolding across seven interconnected sections to reach a dramatic finale where colorful silver-glass spheres suspended from the ceiling evoke the vastness of the cosmos. The book positions Jolley’s achievement within the broader discourse of contemporary glass sculpture while examining its significance as an institutional anchor for the museum’s evolving cultural presence in the region.

Published by the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, 2018

Essays by Lilly Wei, Robert C. Morgan, and J. Richard Gruber

Designed by Steven Schoenfelder Design

Hardcover, fully illustrated, 144 pages

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