November 1, 2008 to March 22, 2009
In 1979, the Corning Museum’s landmark exhibition, “New Glass: A Worldwide Survey” introduced the work of an unknown Czech artist, František Vízner, to the American public. Nearly 30 years later, Vizner, an internationally acclaimed artist, is presented once again at Corning as a studio glass master.
“Masters of Studio Glass: František Vízner” presents a range of the artist’s distinctive cast and ground vessels, as well as early blown forms, dating from 1963 to the present. Vizner’s translucent objects, with their clean, articulated lines and deep, luminous colors, occupy the shifting boundary between function and non-function. While his pieces are based on the shapes of functional bowls and plates, we understand their pure and simple volumes better as non-functional, sculptural forms.
František Vízner trained at the Specialized School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod (1953 – 1956), and then he studied at the renowned Academy of Applied Arts in Prague (1956 – 1962). From 1962 to 1967, he worked at the Teplice glassworks, designing pressed glassware. From 1967 to 1975, he worked in the design studio at Škrdlovice, a glassworks specializing in innovative hot-sculpting and blowing processes. Vízner left the Czechoslovak glass industry in 1975 to pursue a successful career as an independent artist.
See the original design drawings for nine of the objects in this exhibition in František Vízner: Drawings, on display at The Rakow Research Library, January 12 – May 1, 2009.