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Red Pyramid

Object NameSculpture
Artist Stanislav Libenský (Czech, 1921-2002)
Artist Jaroslava Brychtová (Czech, 1924-2020)
Made FromNon-lead glass
Date1993
TechniqueMold-melted, cut, ground, polished
SizeOverall H: 83.4 cm, W: 119.3 cm, D: 28.2 cm
Accession Number94.3.101
Credit LineGift of the artists
Curatorial Area(s)
Exhibitions
Czech Glass Now: Contemporary Sculpture, 1970-2004
Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova: A 40-Year Collaboration in Glass
Favorites From the Contemporary Glass Collection
Interpretive Notes
The artistic partnership of Stanislav Libenský (b. 1921) and Jaroslava Brychtová (b. 1924) has had an enormous influence on the Studio Glass movement. The career in glass of this husband-and-wife team spanned more than 45 years. Their art explores ideas about light, color, space, and transparency. Charcoal studies of the forms are created by Libenský and given to Brychtová, who translates her husband’s drawings into three-dimensional models. The process of conceiving each sculpture - developing the concept, envisioning the form in three dimensions, and selecting the color of the glass to be used - is shared by the artists. While much abstract art can seem cold or removed, the sculptures of Libenský and Brychtová communicate emotion and energy through color and light. In Red Pyramid, the dramatic character of the sculpture results from the penetration of light into the glass mass, a phenomenon that the artists explored repeatedly in their work. Glass is a material that is often used symbolically. It lends itself to metaphor because it can imitate some things, such as water and stone, and suggest other things, such as air and light. One of the most powerful aspects of glass is its ability to hold light in its mass in a way similar to that in which energy, or the spirit, is held in the mass of the human body. Red Pyramid was presented to The Corning Museum of Glass at the time of the artists’ retrospective exhibition in 1994.
Place Made
Czech Republic, Zelezny Brod
Physical DescriptionTransparent red non-lead glass; glass chunks fused in a mold, ground, polished. Solid wide triangular sculpture with thin edges, sits cantilevered backwards, thickens gradually from top point towards base; one broad side (back) of triangle is flat and polished; other side (front) has matte surface from mold, front plane (in upper third of body) is cut by a horizontal angular notch (with mottled surfaces) running from left edge and stopping just short of right edge; section of front plane from right edge of notch to base bends sharply back, long front base edge is irregular, while all other base edges are smooth; obtuse triangular base is ground flat; inscribed at front right base edge: "S. LIBENSKÝ J. BRYCHTOVÁ 1993".
Provenance
Provenance information not currently available online. Please check back in the coming weeks.
Object copyright© Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libenský
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