Author: glasmuseum

Poignant fragility and razor-sharp hardness, luminous colours and shining clarity – glass offers fantastic possibilities for creating profoundly expressive artworks that display both aesthetic and technical brilliance. Artists who work with glass do not rely solely on familiar processes such as casting and blowing the molten, i.e. hot, glass. On the contrary, once the glass has cooled down, it can be technically processed further at room temperature without further exposure to heat using methods such as cutting, grinding, polishing, engraving, etching, laminating, bonding, sandblasting, wiring and painting. These diverse steps that go into further shaping or finishing the cooled glass are subsumed under the collective term “coldworking techniques”.

From this so-called “cold glass” artists create astonishing works, a selection of which is on view at the Glass Museum Lette, arranged in groups. Some of the pieces are on loan from artists while others come from the museum’s own collection. Viewed together, they draw attention to the multi-faceted and diverse possibilities of coldworked glass.

Among the featured artists is Marta Klonowska, who has gained recognition on the international art market over the years with her unique animal sculptures and installations. Based on motifs in old master paintings, Klonowska constructs naturalistic animals and figures using metal armatures onto which she assembles countless precisely cut shards and rods of coloured glass. As if by magic, the cold, rigid glass is transformed into soft, lifelike bodies, putting creatures in the spotlight that are otherwise mere extras in the venerable paintings. Josepha Gasch-Muche for her part uses coldworking to create fascinating iridescent murals and three-dimensional objects made of splintered glass. To make them she breaks apart paper-thin, irregularly formed display glass and then layers the splinters over and next to each other, gluing them together invisibly. When light falls across the layers, the works take on a vibrant, almost sensual, air. They appear to move and change depending on the angle of incidence or strength of the light and the position of the viewer. Cuban artist Carlos Marcoleta is at home in diverse fields – including glass. With finesse and craftsmanship, he layers custom-cut pieces of satin-finished float glass to form a structure, an inversion of positive and negative form, for example in the portrait of a woman who seems to be trying to free herself from inside the glass panes. Marcoleta’s work continually changes its appearance with the viewing angle, allowing the observer to explore “Mujer 2” layer by layer.

These and other glass objects by masters of coldworking techniques interact with and enrich one another in a way that is rarely seen in exhibitions and which makes a visit to the Glasmuseum Lette all the more rewarding.

The current Coronavirus Protection Ordinance of the State of NRW applies!

Photo above: Marta Klonowska, Jeune Femme en Robe à la Polonoise after Pierre-Thomas LeClerc, 2019 – Photo Artur Gawlikowski, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Photos (from left):

Josepha Gasch-Muche, T. 10-01-17, 2017 – Photo Josepha Gasch-Muche

Jens Gussek, Hammer und Sichel, 2016 – Photo Eric Tschernow, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Carlos Marcoleta, Caribena-Mujer 2, 1997 – Photo Horst Kolberg

Masami Hirohata, Natura Morta, 2015 – Photo Eric Tschernow, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Anne Knödler, Hoffnungsglück, 2014 – Photo Eric Tschernow, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Gerd Kruft, Kubus mit Blau, 2006 – Photo Gerd Kruft

Judith Röder, Dickicht 2, 2017 – Photo Eric Tschernow, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Marta Klonowska, Die Versuchung des Heiligen Antonius (Flötenspieler), 2008 – Photo Stephan Wieland, Galerie lorch+seidel contemporary

Jiří Harcuba, Chopin, 1982 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Ronald Fischer, Ein Stück Unendlichkeit, 2005 – Photo Ronald Fischer

Olga Pusztay, Tasche, 2008 – Photo Zoltan Szalai

Katharine Coleman, Small Ruby Waterlily, 2014 – Photo Katharine Coleman

 

We all have our own unique view of the world, but few people have the desire, courage and talent to compellingly express their perceptions and share their ideas with others. Artists, on the other hand, have always delighted in fearlessly telling their stories, opening our eyes and broadening our horizons.

One such artist is Alena Matějka, a multi-award-winning sculptor and glass designer whose insatiable curiosity about life and joy in experimentation have enabled her to create an extraordinarily wide-ranging oeuvre. Her unusual sculptures, objects and installations are exhibited and collected worldwide.

Rather than working exclusively with glass, Matějka also incorporates other elements such as stone, marble, ice and organic materials, often in combination. But glass still occupies a special place in her work. In this medium she creates a fantastic cosmos of opposites, such as truth versus poetic imagination, compassion versus irony. Her impactful sculptures and installations confront viewers with great immediacy, sometimes having an unsettling effect and demanding a reaction. Matějka’s artful storytelling never presents us with a linear narrative but is instead rife with metaphors and unexpected twists. She is a master of exaggeration, paradox and provocation, making the tales she tells with her works all the more suspenseful and inspiring.

Alena Matějka was born in 1966 in the South Bohemian town of Jindřichův Hradec in the Czech Republic. After training at the Kamenický Šenov School of Glassmaking, she studied until 1997 in the glass class taught by Prof. Vladimir Kopecký at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, earning her doctorate there in 2005. Today she lives alternately in the Czech Republic and Sweden with her husband, the stone sculptor Lars Widenfalk.

In our new exhibition, we invite you to discover Alena Matějka’s art, as powerful as it is poetic. On view are around 40 wall and floor installations, along with sculptures and work groups, all of which reflect the versatile artistic repertoire of this exceptional artist.

 

Photo above: Alena Matějka, Aimable Amie, 2008 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Photos (from left):

Alena Matějka, She is not me, 2018 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Water, 2020 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Moren Clai Moor of Ptarmigan + Barabas an Clachan of Kilmur, 1998 – Foto Hildegard Morian

Alena Matějka, Between Heaven and Earth, 2015  – Foto Ondřej Kocourek

Alena Matějka, Aimable Amie, 2008 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Feast (table), 2013 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek (Detail)

Alena Matějka, Feast (table), 2013 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, The House of the Six Hawks, 2007 – Foto Ondřej Kocourek

Alena Matějka, Cuckoo´s Nest, 2015 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Rose, 2007 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Treasure Guardians, 2020 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, My Dear, Hunter from Lavondyss, 2009 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

 

Fernweh – this term, akin to another German word that has come into common use in English, wanderlust, conveys a strong longing to leave one’s familiar surroundings and set off into the big wide world. But getting away has become complicated in these days of the coronavirus pandemic with all the travel restrictions, entry rules and quarantine regulations. Those who did travel over the past two years usually chose destinations closer to home. So the Fernweh we feel is undiminished!

Even before the term became common, people were well acquainted with the painful longing for far-off places. Goethe, for example, who was not yet familiar with the word, paraphrased it in 1822 as a “feeling of flight”, a “longing for far-off places” and “reverse homesickness”. With the concept of the “blue flower”, Romantic literature created a concrete symbol for this yearning, for the search for the unattainable and the infinite. The word Fernweh first appeared in literature around 1835, in a travel account by the famous writer and landscape architect Hermann Prince of Pückler-Muskau. He wrote that he “never suffers from homesickness (Heimweh) but rather from Fernweh”. The neologism quickly came into use in academic language as well as in poetry and art.

And then, in the twentieth century, the tourism industry seized upon the concept. Ever since then, Fernweh has been generated more or less artificially by means of targeted advertising featuring enticing images of tourist destinations around the world. It has thus become an important international economic factor. But Fernweh is not just about the urge to travel, as science has now discovered. It may simply reflect the desire for a change of scenery or some variety and colour in a more or less grey day-to-day life. Some of us may feel a diffuse restlessness, while others are unhappy and depressed. Travel promises an escape from this sense of unease, but when it is not possible, we can still immerse ourselves in fantasy worlds by way of books, the theatre or museum exhibitions. Scientists therefore also refer to Fernweh as an important “cultural technique for staying at home”.

This “cultural technique” of Fernweh has now inspired us to create a new exhibition. And the collection of the Ernsting Foundation has once again proven to be a treasure trove. We set out in search of appropriate works and ended up probing the entire spectrum of the collection. In the process, we discovered a wide range of different sculptures, objects, vessels and wall installations that each in their own way – sometimes whimsically, sometimes more thoughtfully – allude to other countries and cultures and evoke associations with the theme of Fernweh. A tour of the exhibition thus becomes an enjoyable journey to worlds both close-by and far afield.

In accordance with current regulations in the State of North-Rhine Westphalia, the 2G or 2G+ rule applies at the Glasmuseum and Glasdepot (2G: admission only with proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or recovery, 2G+: a negative PCR test is also required).

 

Photo above: Jens Gussek, Flugzeug, 1996 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Photos (from left):

Gareth Noel Williams, Deep in my own world, 2001 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Vittoria Parrinello, The perimeter of air, 2014 – Photo Vittoria Parrinello

Jens Gussek, Flugzeug, 1996 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Gabriela Volna, Mensch und Wasser, 2003 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

 Michael Behrens, Seaforms 2014-116, 2014 – Photo Paul Niessen

Dale Chihuly, Cerulean Blue Macchia, 1991 – Photo Glasmuseum Lette

Jens Gussek, Blue ship, 2004 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Ned Cantrell, Tiger in a Tropical Storm, 2016, Detail – Photo Ned Cantrell

Winnie Teschmacher, Light of the soul, 2007 – Photo Louis Sonderegger

Irene Rezzonico, Armadillo cousin from Africa, 1998 – Photo Ron Zijlstra

Kati Kerstna, Drums 1+2, 2014 – Photo Glasmuseum Lette

Ivana Houserova, Butterfly, 2006 – Photo Tomas Hilger

 

“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