Anthem of Joy in Glass

Borosilicate glass is commonly known in the United States as Pyrex. This sculpture by Vera Lišková was made by heating glass tubes, inflating and manipulating the hot glass over a torch to create the individual spiky elements, and then sealing the elements to one another with a torch. Vera Lišková was a talented designer who pioneered the use of borosilicate glass for sculpture. Traditionally, borosilicate glass is used for figurines that are fashioned by artists using a small torch. In the late 1960s, Lišková began to make abstract sculptures and sculptures of animals in glass that, over the years, gradually increased in size. Anthem of Joy was the most ambitious work of Lišková’s long career. Inspired by the form of musical notes, the sculpture communicates the emotion and energy of harmonious sound.