Media Contact:
Susan Newsom Communications Manager
253-284-4732
snewsom@museumofglass.org
TACOMA, Wash.-The Museum of Glass will present nearly 300 examples of post-World War II Czech glass and related drawings in Czech Glass, 1945 -1980: Design in an Age of Adversity, opening January 18, 2006. The exhibition explores a remarkable but little-known chapter in the history of 20th-century design. It is the largest gathering of postwar Czech glass ever seen in the United States and features a wide array of dazzling objects, including tour de force sculptures, which illustrate glass design in Czechoslovakia during a time of limited artistic freedom.
The Czech Republic has a long tradition of glassmaking. In the years following World War II, Czechoslovakia became occupied by Soviet troops and fell under Communist rule. Many Czech glass designers, craftsmen and teachers, who had been banished by the Nazis during the war, returned and revived the diminished glass industry. Communist ideology mandated social realism in art--images of happy workers and productive factories and farms--as opposed to abstract art, which was considered “decadent” and held in contempt by the Soviet leadership.
Artists working in glass, however, were allowed to continue their activities relatively unhindered because glass was considered a decorative medium for functional use rather than fine art. Many young artists who had trained as painters and sculptors migrated to the world of glass and its creative freedom. Glass design became an outlet for artistic exploration, and Czech glassmakers became international pioneers in the use of the medium for artistic purposes.
The exhibition features a wide array of influential and rare works created by many masters of Czech glass, including Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, Václav Cigler, Vladimír Kopecký, René Roubícek, František Vízner and Dana Vachtová. Design drawings that demonstrate how the artists transformed abstract ideas into glass vessels accompany many of the pieces.
The Museum of Glass is one of only two scheduled venues for the exhibition in the United States and the only West Coast location. Loans of objects were acquired from a number of collections worldwide, including the Steinberg Foundation in Liechtenstein; museums in the Czech Republic, including the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and the Northern Bohemian Museum in Liberec; the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, Germany; and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by noted scholars Suzanne Frantz, Tina Oldknow, Verena Bertmaring, Antonín Langhammer, Jan Mergl, Lenka Panková, and exhibition curator Professor Dr. Helmut Ricke. This catalogue is the only publication available on this era of Czech glass.
The Museum of Glass is a fine arts museum dedicated to the presentation of the medium of glass within the context of contemporary art in all media. The Museum presents the richness and diversity of the art of our time and explores how glass draws from and contributes to the many facets of contemporary art. In addition to the Hot Shop Amphitheater where visitors can watch artists work, the facilities include galleries, outdoor exhibition areas, a theater, studio, grand hall, store and café.
The Museum of Glass is sponsored in part by the City of Tacoma Arts Commission, the Washington State Arts Commission and ArtsFund.
