This is what the press office of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag said on the Vaclav Cigler exhibition what was held in 2005 on their exhibition on Vaclav Cigler
The first ever presentation of modern glass from the Czech Republic and Slovakia in any Dutch museum. Thanks to the loan of a major private collection, the Gemeentemuseum is now in a position to reveal the skill and sophistication with which glass artists in these two countries exploit the optical effects of glass in their sculptures. The exhibition will be designed by the internationally renowned designer Václav Cigler (1929), who is regarded as the founding father of this school of glass art.
According to the book that I now have for sale , this exhibition was held 30 years after Cigler’s solo exhibition at the Museum Boymans van Beuningen. Of course this does not mean that the Gemeentemuseum was not important…..it was….and its catalogue is one of the best that was published on Cigler ever. But is is not true that it was the “first ever”
exhibition. I love the works of Cigler , but I prefer the lesser known Boymans catalogue, because of the small sketches that are included at the end. Both catalogues are now available at www.ftn-books.com
A legend of Czech artistic glassmaking, Cigler has played an active role both domestically and internationally since the 1960s. He studied at the Nový Bor Glass School and with Professor Josef Kaplický at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He established and subsequently headed (1965–1979) the Glass in Architecture studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. He participated in dozens of group as well as solo exhibitions around the world. In addition to his country of origin, his works can be found in both public and private collections in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Great Britain, USA, Canada and Japan. On the occasion of winning the Czech Grand Design award, he was inducted into the Czech Design Hall of Fame in 2018.
