EXHIBITIONS AND COLLECTION 2016–2020

In 2021, collector Lilly Ernsting, the founder of the foundation, will be able to look back on 25 years of exhibiting and collecting! Reason enough to kick off the new year at the Glasmuseum Lette with a special exhibition. On view is a selection of objects acquired over the past five years at exhibitions and on our travels. A catalogue offering insights into the museum’s activities during this period accompanies the show.

A series of in-house exhibitions and numerous journeys made across Europe bear witness to several busy years of collecting. During those years, 270 objects found their way into the collection. From this rich assortment, we have chosen 60 pieces that illustrate our broad-based exhibition and collection concept. The current show displays all the vibrancy and diversity of the collection itself, like a multi-coloured kaleidoscope revealing the exuberant creativity of the glass scene. These glass objects thus serve as a mirror of developments in art glass, in artistic concepts and in the applied techniques.

The catalogue tells the story of how the exhibitions and the numerous objects housed at the Glasmuseum Lette came together over the past five years, sometimes in a summary, sometimes in brief artist monographs. The value of Lilly Ernsting’s maxims is born out here: direct contact with artists, frequent visits to galleries and museums, examining objects on site, and talking with all those involved. Only in this way is it possible to maintain the continuity and quality of the exhibitions and collection. In the course of many trips during the past years, existing contacts were rekindled and new ones made, often resulting in new projects. Contemplating the outcome of the exhibition and collection activities and looking back on the origins of what was still a modest private collection in the 1970s, one can only agree with Lilly Ernsting: “Who would have thought!”

 Photo above: Alena Matejka, Water, 2020 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Photos (from left):

Lars Widenfalk, La Greca, 2019 – Photo Gabriel Urbánek  /  László Lukácsi, FAN, 2019 – Photo Liza Lukácsi  / Carol Milne, Purple Reigns, 2016 – Photo Carol Milne  / Josef Marek, Fusion, 2019 – Photo Jirí Koudelka  /

Anna Torfs, Parts High – Crystal Gold, 2017 – Photo Jaroslav  Kvíz  /  Julius Weiland, Down the Rabbit Hole, 2017 – Photo Eric Tschernow  /  Antoine Pierini, Vestige Contemporain (VEC1A2), 2017 – Photo Gaëlle Pierini  /  Jan Surýnek, Igel, 2014 – Photo Glasmuseum Lette /

Thomas Kruck, Treasure Box, 2013 – Photo Thomas Kruck  /  Stanislaw Jan Borowski, Sweet delight VS The Pinch a bit Bear, 2013 – Photo Grzegosz Matoryn  /  Alison Allum, Twitter Troll, 2018 – Photo Glasmuseum Lette /  Iris Haschek, Fadenwesen, 2018 – Photo Iris Haschek