The 2009 American Glass Guild Conference
July 16-20, 2009
Buffalo, New York
2009 Conference
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Wilhelm Derix
Art Glass in Architecture
 The Spindles, Brian Clarke |
 St Andreas Church, Markus Lüpertz |
 Rockefeller Center, Michael Hammers |
About Wilhelm Derix
Wilhelm Derix is the 4th generation of his family to run DERIX GLASSTUDIOS, established 1866 in the Lower Rhein Area, Germany, by his great grandfather, Wilhelm Derix. His son, Wilhelm Derix II., continued the business and later his youngest son, Ludwig Derix, followed in his footsteps in 1945.
The present Wilhelm Derix III was educated after his A-Levels first as a musician. He then studied architecture and made his finals as a construction technician in 1970 and joined the studio of his father, who died 3 years later.
Wilhelm Derix moved the studio from Rottweil, South Germany, to the present head office, Taunusstein-Wehen (close to the Rhein-Main-Area). He continued the policy of his father to be a “tool for the artists”. His philosophy is that an artist should not limit the possibilities in his or her work through limited skills. Derix is offering his highly trained staff to realize the nearly unlimited possibilities of artist’s ideas in glass.
He started in 1970 with 12 people and has employed up to 80 people in his studio. Wilhelm Derix collaborates closely with artists, sharing with them his 39 years of experience in glass and architecture. Those long years have given him a surplus of technical know-how and he is adept at finding solutions to problems in ways no one had thought of before.
This collaboration in the studio with artists from the USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe has formed a glass-family in Taunusstein-Wehen.
His daughter, Barbara Derix, as the 5th generation, is supporting him and is an important link to the US art scene. The studio employs 55 people at present and provides most of the known techniques in glass. Derix is willing to develop new techniques in order to translate the artist’s ideas into glass.
