The Gray Table
Artist: Stanislav Libenský (Czech, 1921-2002)
Artist: Jaroslava Brychtová (Czech, 1924 - 2020)
Date: 1987 (cast 1988)
Dimensions:
H: 15 5/8 in.; W: 30 1/4 in.; D: 10 1/4 in.
Medium: Cast glass
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy and George Saxe
Object number: 1991.98
Label Text:The artistic collaboration between the husband-and-wife team of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová has significantly shaped the landscape of contemporary glass art, redefining glass’s use as a sculptural medium through their investigation of light, color, and, form. Their accomplishments are especially remarkable given the oppressive political conditions of the Communist government of what was then Czechoslovakia, where they spent much of their career. Libenský and Brychtová were among the artists who supported a rebirth of Czech art as a form of political protest. Their volumetric, light-filled works, which stretch the physical limits of the material to achieve mass and scale, are both impressive and technically difficult.
Gray Table belongs to a body of work from the 1980s that took the form of tables and thrones. While much of the couple’s work is geometric and abstract, this more representational expression is perhaps a quietly subversive symbol of the power and control exerted by the government over their personal and artistic lives until the 1990s.
Gray Table belongs to a body of work from the 1980s that took the form of tables and thrones. While much of the couple’s work is geometric and abstract, this more representational expression is perhaps a quietly subversive symbol of the power and control exerted by the government over their personal and artistic lives until the 1990s.
On view
In Collection(s)