Brychtová, Jaroslava Libenský, Stanislav

The Czech couple Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova are considered the most important and influential glass artists of the 20th century.  They are credited with elevating glass to the level of major architectural sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Museum Bellerive, Zürich; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Yokohama Museum or Modern Art, Yokohama; Hokkaido Museum of modern Art,  Sapporo and Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Louvre, Paris all hold collections by Libensky Brychtova.

Libensky and Brychtova lived behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia during the Communist movement that ravaged the country’s artworld. Curiously, the couple were seen as “national treasures” and politically acceptable artisans and were provided with resources to explore and experiment with glass, creating colossal architectural and non-figurative sculptures, considered a new dimension of the art form. Deriving their style from the strong tradition of Czech decorative glass, their work exhibits their desire to portray the intensity of human thought, imagination and feelings therefore crossing the borders of tradition, establishing them as the most influential artists working in glass of our time.  

With presentations at the world exhibitions in Brüssel (1958), Montreal (1967) and Osaka (1979), Libensky Brychtova became recognized for their monumental architectural glass installations; bringing them to the attention of the Western world and subsequently securing their position in the 20th – 21st century art.