MASSIVE CZECH MASTERWORK FILLS CHRYSLER MUSEUM GALLERY WITH VISION AND VERVE

Glass pyramid on display also honors Azalea Festival’s 2009 NATO Nation

(Norfolk, VA) — An international masterwork—a 6’-tall indoor pyramid of gleaming green glass—shines in living color at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s celebration of Art of Glass 2—Hampton Roads’ celebration of contemporary art glass. The stunning Green Eye of the Pyramid reflects the collaborative vision of groundbreaking artists Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. The Czech husband-and-wife team is hailed for having pioneered the use of glass as a medium for large-scale environmental sculpture. Green Eye of the Pyramid will be on display at the Chrysler from April 26 through Winter, 2010.

Hampton Roads’ region-wide focus on modern glass deserves no less than groundbreaking artists, says Kelly Conway, Curator of Glass at the Chrysler.

Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová Czech (1921-2002 and b. 1924, respectively) Green Eye of the Pyramid, 1993-1997 Cast glass Fron the collection of Lisa and Dudley Anderson Photo courtesy of Heller Gallery, New York

“For Art of Glass 2, we wanted to include international artists who were influential in the 20th and 21st centuries. To do that, you must represent the tradition of Czech glass—and there simply are no better representatives than Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová.”

Conway says there’s good cause for the reverence that glass lovers devote to them.

“Like Lino Tagliapietra, Libenský and Brychtová are seminal figures in glassmaking and education. Their approach to the material is very different [from Tagliapietra’s] and reflects the differences between their cultures, but they are just as influential in the teaching and the techniques they shared,” she says. “Libenský and Brychtová were critical to the development of the Studio Glass movement in America and abroad.”

THE ARTISTS

The artists’ journey together has all the intrigue and travel of a Cold War spy novel. Stanislav Libenský (1921-2002) and Jaroslava Brychtová (b. 1924) each had a successful career in the traditional arts, as well as glassmaking, before World War II. They did not begin working together until 1956. By that time, Bohemia’s artistic climate had changed dramatically. Czechoslovakia was ensconced firmly behind the Iron Curtain, where the Communist agencies demonstrated little appreciation for art, let alone abstract art. Government authorities were suspicious of free-thinking artists and posed strict limitations on their work. More often than not, abstract art was deemed subversive; artists with a message suffered for their craft.

Strangely, unlike their contemporaries in music, literature, dance, and painting, Libenský and Brychtová escaped this scrutiny. They had done nothing to compromise their artistic vision. It was simply that the Communists found a utilitarian social purpose for their unique glass statuary and colossal castings. As post-war Czechoslovakia underwent a necessary rebuilding boom, the need to adorn the new factories, hotels, and public spaces became ever clearer. Libenský/ Brychtová’s glass art seemed to be just what the government prized: attractive, large, and value-neutral. As their work drew more and more acclaim, the Communists embraced the artists, allowing their vision and mastery to grow without much interference from the 1950s through the 1970s. Libenský aptly summarized the dynamic: “The state didn’t see glass as art.”

The Communists at first missed what the rest of the world instantly recognized. Although officials touted Libenský/Brychtová work to visitors, they did not fully understand the spirit and soul of their work. As the artists’ fame grew, invitations to show their work followed. Their art came to greater international attention through world exhibitions, notably in Brussels (1958), Montreal (1967), and Osaka (1970). In Japan, the couple exhibited The River of Life. Inspired by the Prague Spring reform movement, the couple had included a set of Soviet boot prints on their work that even Communist authorities could not mistake as an endorsement of their hard-line rule. Censors forced Libenský and Brychtová to sandblast the piece until their imaginative message was removed, expelled them from the Communist party, and forbid them to travel abroad together.

Their influence, however, had been growing through their educational efforts all the while. By the early 1960s, the couple had married and turned their attention not only to creating and showing their own work, but to teaching their technical knowledge and aesthetic to glassmaking students in schools and studios in Prague. Along with the requisite skills, Libenský and Brychtová spread their belief in the importance of artistic freedom.

As Communism weakened and fell in the 1980s, their creative collaboration came to full fruition, as did their international teaching. At the invitation of American glass master Dale Chihuly, who had dropped in unannounced at the couple’s home, Libenský and Brychtová agreed to lead many educational sessions at the now-famous Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle. This collaborative approach to glass has influenced three generations of artists around the world and international critical acclaim has secured their position in the Pantheon of 20th- and 21st-century art.

 THE EXHIBITION

Artistic inspiration can strike at any time, in any place, as Green Eye of the Pyramid is proof. While Brychtová traveled in Mexico in the 1990s, she visited Chichén Itzá’s ancient Mayan ruins and, as do most tourists, climbed the famous El Castillo pyramid. Atop the ziggurat, guarding the temple, she discovered a statue of a menacing red jaguar with gleaming jade eyes. The trip provided images she could not forget. When she returned to Prague and described her experiences to her husband, he began to sketch a heavily-shaded pyramid with jagged edges and an emerald eye. Brychtová then translated his drawing into a full-scale clay model from which they both created a mold and cast the glass. Afterward, the pair selectively ground and polished portions of the colossal casting to enhance the form. They completed Green Eye in 1997.

The genius of the piece was partially accidental. As two triangular planes intersected, the light trapped within the curved and flat surfaces produced a radiant eye – an unintended effect, Brychtová said. “When we were working on the Green Eye, we knew that two volumes were meeting, but we didn’t know that the color of the eye, the point of the intersection, would be physically different from the rest of the piece.” This “alchemy,” as Libenský described it, of light, space, color, and emotion is a hallmark of their work.

“Of all Libenský and Brychotova’s visionary pieces, we chose to exhibit Green Eye of the Pyramid because it shows how sometimes a single work can sum up the work of the artist just as successfully as multiple works can,” she says. “This particular casting demonstrates very well how Libenský and Brychtová worked together. I believe it represents the culmination of their art.”

The Chrysler announced the addition of this third Art of Glass 2 exhibition at a news conference unveiling details for Norfolk’s 56th International Azalea Festival, which will take place April 27 through May 3, 2009. This year’s annual Salute to NATO honors the Czech Republic, so the Museum’s exhibition of a masterwork by the country’s best-known glass artists is especially timely. Green Eye of the Pyramid is on loan to the Chrysler from the private collection of Lisa and Dudley Anderson.

OTHER ART OF GLASS 2 EVENTS AT THE CHRYSLER

Green Eye of the Pyramid is only one of three exhibitions in the Chrysler Museum’s participation in Art of Glass 2: a region-wide cultural partnership between the Chrysler Museum of Art, Virginia Arts Festival, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, and nearly 20 affiliate groups. As did the first Art of Glass in 1999, this collaboration is sure to bring the best in contemporary glass from around the world to Hampton Roads.

The Chrysler also will feature Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Italian Glass, an expansive examination of the 40-year career and art of the Murano glassblowing Maestro. The exhibition, including 155 of the artist’s finest works, will be on display from April 8 through July 19, 2009 at the Museum.

Contemporary Glass Among the Classics, opening April 26 through July 19, 2009, will feature innovative glass works by Katherine Gray, Stephen Knapp, Karen LaMonte, and Beth Lipman. Their pieces will be interspersed among related works in the Museum’s collection.

A variety of gallery talks, films, artist interviews, school tours, and special performing arts events – including live glassblowing and a special Family Day event with free admission on May 17th – will complement the must-see keynote exhibitions.

Local presentation of all exhibitions is made possible through the generous support of Art of Glass 2, the Bunny and Perry Morgan Fund for Special Exhibitions, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arnold and Oriana McKinnon, and Renée and Arthur Diamonstein.

 

Members of the media in need of high-resolution images of the exhibition may contact the Office of Communications at 757.333.6295 or communications@chrysler.org for more information.