A New Modernism

World Glass:

Sylva Petrova on the development of the Czech Republic's international reputation for Glass art.

Glass manufacturing was first established in Central Europe in the area know as Bohemia (the region of Bohemia and Moravia together) around beginning of first Millennium. However, before the 5th Century AD it appears to have been disrupted by German invasions. It later re-emerged as archaeological discoveries show high standards of glass production from the 8th - 10th Centuries there. Glass production at this time included necklaces and beads as well as basic domestic goods. It was relatively late, in comparison to France and Germany, that the execution of stained glass windows was developed in the Bohemia. However, this later flourished in exceptional quality and quantity in the 14th Century all over the country

Centuries around the court of the emperor Rudolf II in Prague, then one of the most important cultural centres in West. The engraver Caspar Lehmann worked consistently for the emperor, with the exception of 2 years, between the years 1588 - 1622. During this time he reinvented the technique of glass engraving which was probably originally developed by the Romans. This re-introduction of engraving on glass led to one off the most significant historical achievements of the Czech glassmaking - the baroque engraved luxury goblets. The 18th Century was significant for the production of black enamelled (Schwarzlot) and double walled glass. These types of glass were exported throughout the world and developed into the recognisable "Bohemian style" glass.

This established the region as world leader in the Glass market, a position held previously and since by Italy. Although in the 19th Century it was a struggle to maintain this position in the world market, glass remained the most highly - developed aspect of industrial production in Habsburg's monarchy.

Over the last century Czech artists have pioneered the use of glass in the creative process. This has inspired the exploration of the possibilities for artistic expression in glass Worldwide. These explorations originated in the early 20th Century through co-operation between the glass industry, painters, designers and architects, for example Jan Kotera, Maria Kirschner, and Adolf Beckert.

During the 20th century, the artistic influence of Vienna 's Studios (known as Wiener Werkstatte) on Bohemian glass production was very significant. At the same time Czech Cubism, characterised by Czech cubist designs for three-dimensional objects was born in glass; as well as ceramics, furniture, metal works and architecture. This was largely thanks to the unique designs of table glass by architect Josef Rosipal. With developing experience and the birth of the independent state "Czechoslovakia", Czech glass design developed a strong national identity. This flourished in many innovative Art Deco forms originating, in particular, from the High School of Decorative Arts in Prague (known as the University of Art, Architecture and Design since 1946). Soon after the beginning of the 1930s these more decorative styles were overshadowed by very modern, simple and elegant designs of Functionalism, which were later echoed in the post World War II designs of the 1950s. (Ludvika Smrckova, Ladislav Sutnar and others).

The second half on the 1950s saw the beginnings of the liberation of glass from pure utility to a more aesthetic function (Rene Roubicek, Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, Jan Kotik and others). Although the work made at this time was of considerable importance, it was still known only to a limited degree. The rest of the world started to become aware of the important developments in Czech as a result of the participation of Czechartists in the XI and XII Milan Triennials at 'EXPO '58' in Brussels and at the 'Glass 1959' exhibition in The Corning Glass Museum, Corning, USA. Despite this exposure, links with the outside world were still very restricted under the Communists and these international events could not fully compensate for this. This helps to explain why the influence of Czech glass on an international level was not as strong as one might assume. In fact, many innovative pieces have remained relatively unknown until today. The restricted contact with the outside world was partially lifted during the '80s and completely after the 1989 'Velvet' revolution.

At the same time, Czech artists having thoroughly tested the creative potential of engraved and cut glass, free blown and kiln glass and also following a period of prismatic cut sculptures, reached the happy conclusion that their work did not suffer from communication barriers. They proved that in glassmaking there were innumerable ways for artists to express themselves despite the restrictions of the time. Around the mid '80's, artists working in glass (not only in the Czech republic) reached a point where they had to ask themselves the question "What next?" This question is still relevant in the Czech Republic now, when the Czechs are no longer seen as an exotic rarity from the East. They now have become equal partners in competition and are subject to the same conditions as all the others.Until the mid 1980s Czech glass drew its inspiration from so called "Modernism" and from a morphology of Czech art, for example aspects from Cubism and later Art Deco (e.g. the work of Stanislav Libensky- and Jaroslava Brychtova, Jan Kotik and others).Although the work made at this time was of considerable importance, it was still known only to a limited degree. The rest of the world started to become aware of the important developments in Czech as a result of the participation of Czech artists in the XI and XII Milan Triennials at 'EXPO '58' in Brussels and at the 'Glass 1959' exhibition in The Corning Glass Museum, Corning, USA. Despite this exposure, links with the outside world were still very restricted under the Communists and these international events could not fully compensate for this. This helps to explain why the influence of Czech glass on an international level was not as strong as one might assume. In fact, many innovative pieces have remained relatively unknown until today. The restricted contact with the outside world was partially lifted during the '80s and completely after the 1989 'Velvet' revolution.

At the same time, Czech artists having thoroughly tested the creative potential of engraved and cut glass, free blown and kiln glass and also following a period of prismatic cut sculptures, reached the happy conclusion that their work did not suffer from communication barriers. They proved that in glassmaking there were innumerable ways for artists to express themselves despite the restrictions of the time. Around the mid '80's, artists working in glass (not only in the Czech republic) reached a point where they had to ask themselves the question "What next?" This question is still relevant in the Czech Republic now, when the Czechs are no longer seen as an exotic rarity from the East. They now have become equal partners in competition and are subject to the same conditions as all the others.

Until the mid 1980s Czech glass drew its inspiration from so called "Modernism" and from a morphology of Czech art, for example aspects from Cubism and later Art Deco (e.g. the work of Stanislav Libensky- Jaroslava Brychtova, Jaroslav Rona), or from trends which made their influence felt in the country during the more "permeable" 1960s, for example Minimal Art (e.g. the work of Vaclav Cigler, prismatic sculptures of Marian Karel, Pavel Trnka, Ales Vasicek, among others). A number of decorative and aesthetic norms were developed which exploited the natural characteristics of glass: its translucency, its shine and its optical effects.

During the first half of the '80s there was a controversial reaction against the glass made in the '70s - especially the trend of precisely cut prismatic glass. Reigning rationality, prevailing objectivity and perfectionism seemed to many to be an exhausted formula. Although some artists continue this trend: Pavel Trnka, Jan Stohanzl, Petr Hora, others set out in independent directions to create glass painted in an expressive way (Jirina Zertova, Bohumil Elias, Dana Zamecnikova). Young artists like Ivana Sramkova-Solcova, Ivana Masitova, Martin Velisek and Michal Machat reactedwith a brand new "Decorativism", which was primarily an escape from Czech totalitarianism and a vehement protest against regulated culture. With the Mies van der Rohe politicised dictate, "less is more" drilled into their heads in schools, young people, most of them still students at the University of Art, Design and Architecture in Prague, shouted in revolt and with euphoria "less is a bore." Some even reached the extremes of Venturi's "more is never enough". They used hybrid forms, ubiquitous irony which even made fun of national symbols and folk art, banality and trash, kitsch, disproportionality, eroticism of motives, confusion of functions and such like. All aimed at provocation. The new generation of artists was against the regime and against everything. After the revolution these motives soon lost their appeal.A wish to discover the unknown is no doubt the driving force behind innovations in currently the most popular techniques used by contemporary glass artists, painting on glass and kiln glass (in Czech glass this term refers to every method of melting glass in a mould). Thanks to Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova and other followers of this old/new technology such as Gizela Sabokova, Jaromir Rybak, Ivan Mares and Ivana Solcova, kiln glass is still regarded as a predominantly Czech domain. The Pelechov's Studio (located near the town Zelezny Brod in the North Bohemia) run by its owner, artist Zdenek Lhotsky is visited by international artists for the realisation of their commissions. The studio operates the largest kilns in the world for kiln glass and Lhotsky himself is considered to be a genial connoisseur of all the 'tricks of the trade', including the construction of moulds.

The concept of an art object as a medium for expression, which vehemently negates the need to present glass as a beautiful material, can be found in the work of radicals, like Vladimir Kopecky, Jirina Zertova and Eliska Rozatova. Their work proves that it is the strength of artistic invention not the material which determines artistic value.

Since 1991 Kopecky's Glass Department at the University of Art, Design and Architecture in Prague has become the centre of experimentation. Materials such as stone, ceramics, paper, wood, leather, rubber, and feathers used earlier in combination with glass were now superseded by biological specimens, such as flesh and animal bones. It is Kopecky's desire to find a counter-balance to a 'classical' Czech aesthetic based on the perfect, compelling and for many sacrosanct forms of Libensky's school. Kopecky's students do not care whether their works appeal to the public or whether they still belong to the category of glass or to a more general creativity.

In 1993 Prof. Marian Karel established his own independent studio at the Prague's university. He strives to create a contrast to the work from Kopecky's studio, but the trends in both schools can be described in global terms. Postmodernism is out-of-date, even for some of its pioneers, and reaction against it growing among a younger generation who are turning to contemporary abstraction, painted geometry, and De-Constructivism. They work with photography and video which they regard as sources of new sensibility, of friction, and of illusion, or else they turn to Performance, Minimal Art and the like. To be described as a Postmodernist is not desirable nowadays, not even in the Czech Republic. A new Modernism is emerging...

Sylva Petrova is a curator, publicist, researcher and lecturer in Glass. She is a former curator of 20th century glass and Deputy Director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. She is currently a research professor in Glass at the University of Sunderland, UK, where she is also the Director of the Institute for International Research in Glass (IIRG). She has written five books including her most recent, 'Czech Glass'published in 2001, which was awarded the Czech national award for 'Book of the year' .