STANISLAV LIBENSKÝ A JAROSLAVA BRYCHTOVÁ - OTISK ANDĚLA
“Glass allows us to create shapes in harmony with light penetrating matter, defining the essence of light space and touch on its secrets. Glass is a primary medium for us, but its character and qualities make it much more than just a means of artistic expression. Therefore, we cannot do anything but be in its vicinity all the time.”
Stanislav Libenský a Jaroslava Brychtová, 1995
The joint history of the artistic couple started to be written in the early 1950s in Železný Brod. Jaroslava Brychtová studied sculpture at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Jan Lauda, but after graduation she remained faithful to her family tradition and devoted herself to glass and sculpture. Stanislav Libensky studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in the glass studio of professor Jaroslav Holeček (1939-44) and then under Professor Josef Kaplický (1949-50). The focus of their studies also determined the way in which they collaborated in the future, with Libenský drawing a design, and Jaroslava Brychtová turning his image of the future object into a model and also supervising its technological implementation.
Libenský and Brychtová viewed glass as a phenomenon in its own right, equal to all other means of artistic expression. During their extensive creative career, besides to making sculptures and objects, they also devoted themselves to the design of utility objects. In their key sculptural work, we can see two main lines. On one hand their famous fused glass sculptures, on the other monumental interventions in architecture. They perfected melting technology methods and glass processing techniques. They were perfectly familiar with its qualities, physical weight, colour options, transparency and light reflection. Numerous are their unique interventions in architecture, e.g. stained glass windows for the Chapel of St. Wenceslas Chapel at
the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle, or their composition for the foyer of the Corning Museum of Glass (USA).
