STRUCTURES - CONTEMPORARY CZECH GLASS ART Révélations, Paris, Banquet 10/09 – 13/09 2015
Glass is an amorphous substance with an irregular crystalline structure, a solidified liquid. Although the secret of its production has been known to humankind for seven thousand years, it found its place as a purely artistic material, capable of capturing the structures of the artist's inner self, only in the 20th century. It was only then that the first abstract glass sculptures were born. And Czech glass artists were among the first in the world able to blur the boundary between applied and free art. Innovative, bold, multi-layered, technologically advanced, perfect in craftsmanship – such was and is Czech glass art, surprising and changeable just like the structure of the material it works with. That is why it still has its admirers, buyers, followers and imitators all over the world.
The pioneering abstract melted glass sculptures of the duo Stanislav Libenský – Jaroslava Brychtová and the unique spatial compositions of René Roubíček stood in the 1950s at the beginning of a path along which hundreds of artists walk today (not only) in the Czech Republic. There is no artistic glass technique that would be foreign to creators from the heart of Europe. Although the most prominent position still belongs to melted glass sculpture, Czech glass artists are also able to make perfect artistic use of the technological specifics of other processes. These include in particular free-blown or mould-blown glass, cutting, engraving, painting and fusing.
Today four numerous generations of glass artists work in the Czech Republic. For our exhibition we carefully selected six of them. By what key? Although they are artists of different ages and aesthetic sensibilities, they are united by a striving to understand the structure of the material with which they work confidently yet with humility. Jaroslav Bejvl Jr. (*1967) re-forms pre-pressed vases by blowing into unique objects; Pavlína Čambalová (*1986) proves that even with the traditional engraving wheel one can create a work of art that speaks a contemporary language. Klára Horáčková (*1980) creates impressive crystalline objects by fusing glass; Ivana Houserová (1957 - 2015) demonstrates that Czech melted glass sculpture still conceals remarkable artistic possibilities, which, in terms of material, is only confirmed by the innovative Vitrucell process of Zdeněk Lhotský (*1956). Oldřich Plíva (*1946) handles melted sculpture minimalistically.
The exhibition STRUCTURES offers only a small sample of the variety of approaches with which artists in the Czech Republic work with glass today, yet it is not an intellectual game, but a message that Czech art glass does not live off its legacy and is not self-absorbed. Quite the opposite. It is the art of today. And because nowhere in the world is there such a sophisticated system of secondary and higher glassmaking education, we can rightly believe that it will remain so.
PhDr. Petr Nový
curator of Galerie Kuzebauch
chief curator of the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou
The Structure of the Moment
JAROSLAV BEJVL JR. (*1967)
The objects from the RE-FORMY project inventively use the press-blowing technology, intended for producing series of items, to create unique artefacts. They are also a tribute to the Czech designer Václav Hanuš, who between 1955 and 1985 designed hundreds of utilitarian and decorative objects. Jaroslav Bejvl Jr. used the metal moulds for some of them as a medium with which he set out on a journey through space-time. And the unique pieces he created are captured moments of this adventurous expedition – a meeting of generations, a merging of tradition and the present, the theory of relativity made matter in glass.
The Structure of a Dream
PAVLÍNA ČAMBALOVÁ (*1986)
In studio glass, engraving is mostly used as a complement to a predefined shape, a detail or the full stop closing a story's sentence. There are, however, exceptions where the concept of the work is subordinated to the engraving. This is how Pavlína Čambalová works with it, and her objects prove that with a small engraving wheel one can create compositions where shape is subordinated to expression and not the other way around. Engraving and dream alike are composed of various layers – from shallow lines to deep cuts. And only this demanding technique – requiring not only manual skill but also imagination, patience and a firm will – can disrupt the homogeneous mass of glass just as a dream disrupts the shell of our everyday certainties.
The Structure of the Soul
KLÁRA HORÁČKOVÁ (*1980)
Thanks to a perfectly mastered fusing technology, Klára Horáčková's glass objects resemble natural crystals. They are reminiscent of jewels hidden in dark caves, patiently waiting for their discoverers, or of pieces of soul that life has assembled together – light and darkness joined in one body. To the observer her objects appear as if created not by a human but by nature itself. They bear the imprint of a glowing core and the tension of clashing tectonic plates. They are an image of the human soul, free and yet bound by matter, just as the freedom of nature is delimited by the planet we call Earth.
The Structure of Life
IVANA HOUSEROVÁ (1957 - 2015)
The melted glass sculpture “Singing Moon” evokes a feeling of harmony and the ever-present closeness of nature, flowing directly from the artist's positive attitude to life. The work is literally given life by the “worm” décor used here for the first time, which gently models the relief and underlines the dynamism of movement in the structure of the glass. It is not only a singing moon, but also a natural spring wreathed in magical healing power. The sculpture was created during Ivana Houserová's residency at the Musée du Verre de Sars-Poteries, and thus combines not only the Czech glass artistic and craft tradition, but also the French one.
The Structure of Matter
ZDENĚK LHOTSKÝ (*1956)
Thanks to the world-unique technological process called Vitrucell, which Zdeněk Lhotský developed with his team over many years, optically striking objects are created. By fusing “glass cells”, one can create structures whose colour and structural variability is limited essentially only by the artist's imagination. The art of melted sculpture has thus received a new impulse, usable not only in studio work but also in architecture and interior design. Lhotský himself most often presents the possibilities of this glass substance in the archetypal shape of perfectly finished bowls.
The Structure of Form
OLDŘICH PLÍVA (*1946)
The taut energy of matter, the relationships between volume and shape – these are the themes Oldřich Plíva addresses in his work. He uses the technology of melted glass sculpture to create objects built not on a primarily aesthetic effect, but on an idea and strong emotionality. And because his works are the result of an honest creative process, and not of speculative aestheticisation, he achieves a truly monumental effect regardless of the size of the sculptures. The shape found by the artist pulsates like a magical object of ancient cultures or a meteorite that carries within it the memory of a journey thousands of light-years long.
