Galerie Kuzebauch invites you to the exhibition Slow! Glass! in Frankfurt am Main, where, as part of Ambiente, it presents a selection of art glass from the Czech Republic. All the exhibited objects were handmade by local artists with the help of unique know-how and traditional techniques passed down from generation to generation. Each object is made from a specific kind of glass that gives it its own character. The title of the exhibition identifies with the idea of the “Slow movement”. Glass melt, mould-blown glass, hand-shaped glass – each demands its own. And above all patience, skill, experience and perseverance. Glass is a material that turns into living matter in fire, and so its creation requires its own time.
The Czech Republic is a land destined for art glass. Words like tradition, craft, courage and vision are not empty terms here, but the very essence of generations of artists' approach to the glass mass. Thanks to this, Czech studio glass remains unique in the global context. The key to the exhibition programme of Galerie Kuzebauch is therefore inventiveness and quality on both the artistic
and the craft level. With this criterion in mind, the artists and their works were chosen for presentation at this year's Ambiente.
Glass is living matter, and the ways to understand its essence are limited only by human intellect and skill. A successful work of art is the result of a dialogue between the artist and the material, not a monologue of one of them. The personalities of Jaroslav Bejvl Jr., Jakub Berdych, Martin Hlubuček, Martin Janecký, Zdeněk Lhotský and Ondřej Strnadel are connected precisely by the ability of a “conversation with glass”, in which one not only speaks but also listens.
In the context of this exhibition it does not matter whether the authors are conceptualists, traditionalists, experimenters or magicians with glassmaking tools; they are not connected by the same aesthetic, perception of the world or approach to craft. Together – and yet each in their own distinctive way (after all, glass itself is composed of a number of various raw materials that together form that magical matter) –
they tell the fascinating story of Czech glass art.
PhDr. Petr Nový
chief curator of the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou
curator of Galerie Kuzebauch
