Hard, sharp, fragile. Transparent, colourful, painted, laminated, glued. Mirrored as well as matte. All of these adjectives can be applied truthfully to the glass artworks on exhibit at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava.
“Along with music, Czech and Slovak glass has been among the most famous cultural activities of our countries since the Middle Ages,” said Czech curator Sylva Petrová in introducing the exhibition Czech and Slovak Glass in Exile to Bratislava. “Nothing has made us as famous as glass.”
Czech and Slovak Glass in Exile is an updated version of an exhibition prepared in 2007 for the Moravian Gallery in Brno under the curatorship of Petrová, an internationally recognised authority in the field of modern glass design. She is currently a professor at the University of Sunderland in Great Britain.
The exhibition presents glass artwork (sculptures, objects, installations) and applied art and design by artists who have lived and worked beyond the borders of the Czech and Slovak republics. Many of them significantly affected the development of glass art in France, Germany, Australia, Argentina and Great Britain.
Among the 27 artists whose work is on display are Ján Zoričák, Pavel Tomečko, Václav Cigler, Patrik Illo, Petr Sís, Milan Vobruba, and Zora Palová, just to mention a few.
The exhibition last until May 11.
SNG, Esterházy Palace, 3rd floor
Open daily except Mondays
10:00-17:30, last entry at 17:00
Tel: (02) 5443-2081, www.sng.sk
