# 21 Chrysler Treasures - Libenský and Brychtova Traditional Cache
# 21 Chrysler Treasures - Libenský and Brychtova
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Twenty first in a series of caches highlighting the art of Norfolk's Chrysler Museum, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, VA 23510. The Chrysler Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday from Noon to 5 pm. Admission is Free. Website: www.chrysler.org. This glass sculpture may be seen in Gallery 223 at the museum.
This is a Green cast glass in 5 sections, mounted together to form the shape of a pyramid. At the center top, the glass is depressed to form the shape of an eye. This large-scale, cast-glass sculpture merges geometric abstraction with dynamic color. The artists (Stanislav Libenský 1921–2002 & Jaroslava Brychtová b. 1924) were experimenting with transforming glass into “color in space.” The back lighting enhances the pyramidal form and illuminates the shape of an eye within the sculpture.
Jaroslava Brychtová, a sculptor, and Stanislav Libenský, originally a painter & later a glass artist, met in 1954. They married in 1963 and worked together until Libenský's death in 2002. Libenský painted & sketched the designs, while Brychtová made clay sculptures from his designs. Since Libenský's death, Brychtová has continued to produce castings. Their work is characterised by simple block shapes infused with subtle colors & nuances.
Libenský began his study of glass in 1937 in Nový Bor, Czechoslovakia. When the German army occupied the Sudetenland in 1938, Libenský moved to the school at Železný Brod, and later to Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design, from which he graduated in 1944. His first notable series in glass, created between 1945 & 1948, were thin crystal vessels, delicately etched & enameled with themes from the Bible & Renaissance art. In 1948 Libenský studied under Kaplický, a painter, sculptor & architect who headed the school of painting on glass. Through his dynamic teaching style & modernist ideas, Kaplický had a tremendous influence on his students & thus on glass as an art form in Czechoslovakia. In 1953 Libenský returned to Železný Brod to become the director of the Specialized School of Glassmaking. During this time that he met Jaroslava Brychtová. She had begun to experiment with casting & carving glass in the 1940s. The war interrupted her education, but she later finished her studies with a concentration in sculpture. Brychtová's career at the Specialized School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod spanned 1950 to 1984. The couple began their long collaboration in 1954 when Brychtová created a sculptural glass bowl modeled after a sketch of a bowl-shaped head that Libenský had made. According to Libenský, the two worked well together because he was trained as a painter & she as a sculptor.
The Czechoslovakian pavilion at EXPO '58 in Brussels garnered attention for its modern architectural design, its film, acting & ballet presentations, but it was Czech glass that attracted the attention of the judges. The entry designed by Libenský & Brychtová, "Animal Reliefs" were cast glass "stones". They were smooth on the obverse; on the reverse, animals inspired by the cave paintings of Lascaux were cast in negative low relief. The effect, when viewed through the smooth surface of the glass, is of a three-dimensional form captured within its depths. Incorporated into a concrete wall in the pavilion's "Glass" gallery, "Animal Reliefs" was awarded a Grand Prix. In developing the negative modeling technique employed in "Animal Reliefs", Brychtová & Libenský created the foundation on which the majority of their later sculptural work was based.
Libenský was an excellent teacher who respected the tradition of glass in Czechoslovakia while furthering his own ideas about the modern direction of glass art. His academic career lasted nearly one-quarter of a century. During that time, despite the opposition of the Communist government, Libenský was able to influence two generations of glass artists, and through international lecturing and exhibition of his & Brychtová’s works, built international interest in modern Czech glass art.
The Chrysler has four other works by these artists in its glass galleries: Red Head; Victory Column; Cubus; and Astronomical Calendar Sphere.
Other caches in this series include:
Other caches in this series include:
Chrysler Treasures #1 - The Norfolk Mace (GC7C965) Located in Gallery 208
Chrysler Treasures # 3 - Angel Appearing to Shepherds (GC7EC96) Located in Gallery 211
Chrysler Treasures # 4 - The Neophyte (GC7ECR7) Located in Gallery 214
Chrysler Treasures # 5 - The Wounded Indian (GC7EMPZ) (No longer at the Chrysler)
Chrysler Treasures # 6 - Picasso (redux) (GCA6RA1) Located in Gallery 219
Chrysler Treasures # 9 - Veronese (GC7EYA3) Located in Gallery 204
Chrysler Treasures #10 - The Last Judgement (GC7EYE5) Located in Gallery 202
Chrysler Treasures #11 - The Vegetable Vendor (GC7EZM5) Located in Gallery 207
Chrysler Treasures #12 - James Baldwin (GC7F3HN) Located in Gallery 222
Chrysler Treasures #13 - Ganymede and the Eagle (redux) (GCARWVG) Located in Gallery 208
Chrysler Treasures #14 - Renoir (GC7F3PJ) Located in Gallery 217
Chrysler Treasures #15 - Samurai Armor (GC7F6M8) Located in Gallery 106
Chrysler Treasures #16 - Tiffany Glass (GC7F5WY) Located in Gallery 116
Chrysler Treasures #18 - Naga Buddha (redux) (GC8A8PE) Located in Gallery 107
Chrysler Treasures #19 - Sarcophagus (redux) (GC8A8X8) Located in Gallery 109
Chrysler Treasures #20 - Georgia O'Keefe(redux) (8TNNX) (located in Gallery 223
Chrysler Treasures # 21 - Libenksy and Brychtova (GC7QFM0) Located in Gallery 223
Chrysler Treasures # 22 - Abstract Expressionism (GC7QG86) Located in Gallery 223
Chrysler Treasures # 23 - Hamlet Robot (GC7QG8E) Located in Gallery 223 (now in storeage)
Chrysler Treasures # 25 - Bernini's Bust of Christ (GC8RZB5) in Gallery 205
Chrysler Treasures # 26 - MacPherson and MacDonald (GC8ZXF5) in Gallery 218
Chrysler Treasures # 27 - Karen Lamonte (GC8ZY3Q) in Gallery 108
Chrysler Treasures # 28 - Amor Forgiven (GC90M9V) in Galley 216
Chrysler Treasures # 29 - Standing Warrior (GC90VFT) in Gallery 105
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