“When the glass feels good while being cut, it starts to sing,” says Willi Pistor, a great pioneer in art glass and a former instructor at the Glasfachschule Hadamar. Like his colleagues at the school, Pistor ideally unites master craftsmanship with an artistic vision.

The heart’s desire of instructors at the school for glassmaking in Hadamar has always been to inspire young people with all the possibilities offered by this unique material. It thus comes as no surprise that many renowned glass artists studied and taught in Hadamar.

Located between Cologne and Frankfurt, the Glasfachschule Hadamar is today one of Germany’s best-known centres for glass processing and training. Always in step with the latest developments in glass technology, the school helps students to realise their potential and hone their expertise in the metier. It has succeeded in continually optimising its training programme in step with the changing requirements for professional practice in order to create an excellent setting for learning about glass.

The school was founded in 1949 on the initiative of glass workers who had been displaced from the glassmaking centres of northern Bohemia after the Second World War and settled in Hadamar and environs to set up new glass-processing businesses. Their aim was to teach young professionals their trade at a vocational school for glass, as had been customary in their homeland.

After presenting artworks by students at the Glasfachschule Hadamar in a special exhibition in 2019/20, we are now showcasing the mastery of instructors at the school. On view is a broad and exciting range of diverse pieces by 23 instructors who have worked as both educators and artists in Hadamar over the past seven decades. Some of them are currently teaching at the school and others used to hold a teaching position there or have since retired. The school’s very first pioneers who were involved in its establishment and development are no longer with us. This gives the works on display from the early years unique historical value. Reviewing the work of all of these artists allows us to trace how new techniques and processes have been continually assimilated and perfected in Hadamar.

We would like to convey our gratitude to Reiner Eul, who teaches glass painting, lead glazing and glass fusing in Hadamar and acted as an intermediary between the glass school, the artists, and the Foundation for this project. It is thanks to his commitment that we are now able to marvel at the wonderful creations by Hadamar’s instructors in the new exhibition!

 

Photo credits: Reiner Eul

 

Photo above: Andrea Hebgen, Brassolini-Caligo – Bananenfalter, 2021

 

Photos (from left):

Andreas Otto, Hommage, 1988

Thomas Kruck, Still Living On The Edge, 1995

Herbert Petters, o.T., Entwurf 1935-40, Ausführung nach 1953

Reiner  Eul, Gestörte Kommunikation, 2021

Willi Pistor, o.T., um 1970 (undatiert)

Josef Welzel, Liegende Figur,1980

Carolin Schwarz, Staatspreis I, 2010

Hans Jorda, o.T. (Meisterstück),1965

Alfred Otto, Jagdszene, um 1972

Alexander Pfohl, Kristallglasteller, ca. 1928

Kurt Eiselt, Große Vase, 1966/67

Frank Ballowitz, Namnam, 2021