AACG News
In Memoriam: František Vízner
Czech artist František Vízner passed away this morning, July 1, at age 75. He had been fighting an illness for the past 12 months. Known for his elegant minimalist glass sculptures in classical monochromatic forms -- bowls, plates, columns and cubic objects – his work explores the relationship between material, form, and light.
In a feature article in Glass Magazine, curator and critic William Warmus stated, “Among twentieth century artists, František Vízner has practically defined the meaning of Classicism as it applies to work in glass, a medium much prone to exaggeration and Baroque affectation. Beginning in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and continuing to the present moment, he has worked to create a series of vessels that are among the most perfect objects ever made by human hands.”
František Vízner’s work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the Bellerive Museum, Zurich; The Chrysler Museum of Art, Virginia; Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf; Kunstsammlungen der Veste, Coburg; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Lausanne; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Museum of Applied Art and Craft, Prague; National Gallery, Prague; The National Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Museum, Stockholm; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
František Vízner was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1936. From 1951–53, he attended the Primary School of Glassmaking in Nový Bor, where he received an apprenticeship in the area of glass painting. He attended the Technical College of Glassmaking in Železný Brod. From 1956-62, Vízner attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague in the studio of glass and glyptics. From 1962-1977, Vízner was a designer at Sklo-union glassworks and Škrdlovice glassworks. During that period, he began shaping glass with a grindstone and collaborating with architects on public installations such as the 1981 wall installation for the Prague underground. Vízner resided in the Czech Republic.
| Posted 11 Jul 01
