- Location: Mala dvorana
We present examples of contemporary art glass from the collections of the Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar (Croatia) and the Bärnbach Glass Museum (Austria).
Over the last 16 years, the Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar has established itself as an institution dedicated to the systematic study and presentation of glass from antiquity to the present day.
The museum now boasts a significant collection of contemporary glass art, which reflects its commitment to presenting various forms of artistic inspiration, technical innovation and craftsmanship, and features artists from around the world.
The exhibition presents 21 works from the museum’s Donations Collection, i.e. new acquisitions that have further enriched it. The featured artists include one from Austria, two from Finland, one from China, nine from Hungary, one from Slovenia, one from Ukraine and six from Croatia. The following techniques are represented: glassblowing, glass fusion, pâte de verre, casting, cold glassworking, cutting, polishing, stained glass, glass mosaics and assemblage or combined techniques. This selection demonstrates the full variety of artistic inspiration and technical innovation in the creation of glass sculptures, installations and wall pieces. It shows the complexity of technical skills, the fascination with glass as a material, and the near reverence it inspires, which is an essential condition for mastering it.
The Stoelzle Glassworks in Bärnbach, in the western part of the Austrian state of Styria, was established in 1805. Master glassmakers have been creating unique hand-blown glassware in Bärnbach for 220 years, with passion and dedication. With an unmatched instinct for the sensitivity of this fragile material, they transform it into wonderful masterpieces of crystal and coloured glass, often supplementing traditional hand-blowing techniques with a range of new techniques of their own.
The Stoelzle Glass Centre and the Stoelzle Oberglas International Glass Symposium combine traditional craftsmanship as practised at the glassworks in Bärnbach with the preservation of glass art and glassmaking culture. The collection of modern glass in Bärnbach’s glassmaking museum has been formed as a direct result of the international symposium and includes works by world-renowned glass artists and designers from the USA, France, Finland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Austria. Artists, designers and experienced master glassmakers have shaped their concepts and ideas in glass at the melting furnace, with technical mastery and the use of a wide range of glassmaking processes. The collection thus presents glassware in all its technical diversity and dazzling colours through a selection of its greatest highlights.
COLOPHON
Head of project Jasna Dokl Osolnik/ Author Katarina Dajčman / Texts Zvonka Požun (Glasmuseum Bärnbach), Jadranka Belevski ( Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar) / Design Maja Rudolf Markovič/ Instalation of the exhibition Maja Rudolf Markovič, Katarina Dajčman/ Technical installation Janez Smrekar, Dušan Obradinovič, Dubravka Pejčić/ Text revision Alenka Klemenc/ English translation Amidas, d. o. o./ Photographs Glasmuseum Bärnbach Austria, Museum of Ancient Glass Zadar/ Printed by GVIDO Napisi d. o. o.
