Slanislav Libensky Portrait

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Stanislav Libensky (1921-2002) world-renowned Czech glass artist. Most of his life he worked with his wife and artistic collaborator Jaroslava Brychtova (1924-). In collaboration they were leaders of contemporary glass art.
(Although I’ve photographed the couple, in this slideshow only Stanislav Libensky has been appeared.)

Stanislav Libensky began his study of glass in 1937 at the Specialized School of Glassmaking in Novy Bor.

In 1948 Libensky returned to the Prague Academy where he studied under Josef Kaplický, a painter, sculptor and architect who was father of Jan Kaplický (1937-2009), well-known architect and founder of Future Systems in London.

In 1954 Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova began to collaborate making all their art works.

Josef Kaplicky’s death in 1962 left a void at the Prague Academy that was filled by Libensky, who was appointed a professor in the glass department in 1963 till 1987.

Among their exhibitions in many cities throughout the world, I would like to emphasis that two exhibitions held in Japan: Expo ’70 in Osaka and retrospective exhibition at Meiji Jingu Shrine in 2002. For the CzechSlovak pavilion of Osaka Expo they presented 22m long glass installation called “River of Life” which was created by the theme “for more humane world without violence.” While the aftermath of the militaries crackdown on Prague Spring, it might have drawn ire from the pro-Soviet government, unfortunately, the River of Life had been lost after Osaka Expo, 28-years later, one third of whole work, center part, was founded in a Japanese beer factory, rest of the work had not yet founded. (I’ve photographed founded center part of it. In the near future, I’ll make public it as in a book or an exhibition. Also, I’ve photographed the retrospective exhibition at Meiji Jingu Shrine.)

Among the awards given to Libensky were a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design) in New York 1997 and Honorary Doctor of the Royal College of Art in London 1995. He was awarded a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1989.

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