In her 95th year, glass artist Jaroslava Brychtová passed away

Železný Brod - At the age of 95, the renowned glass artist Jaroslava Brychtová has passed away. Her death was confirmed today by František Lufinka, the mayor of Železný Brod in the Jablonec region, where the artist was born and spent her entire life. The family does not wish to share any details regarding her passing, he added. Brychtová, along with her husband Stanislav Libenský, formed a world-renowned glassmaking partnership.

Brychtová was born on July 18, 1924, in Železný Brod, and she remained loyal to the city her entire life, living in the house built by her father, the Prague sculptor Jaroslav Brychta. He was one of the founders of the Železný Brod glass industrial school and was fond of making various glass figurines. However, Brychtová did not study at his school; she graduated from the gymnasium in Turnov. Nevertheless, she could not escape glass. While studying at the Prague Academy of Art, she began experimenting with fused glass reliefs. When she returned to Železný Brod, she established a department for fused glass at the local glassworks.

In 1957, she began collaborating with Stanislav Libenský, who was then the director of the Železný Brod glass school. Just a year later, they received their first award at Expo 58. Together, they created authorial sculptures and works for architecture over the years.

Most of their works are abroad, but residents of Liberec are familiar with their Spad meteoritů in the building of a mountain hotel and transmitter Ještěd. They also created the stained glass "Bird with Cherry" for the café of the Art Nouveau hotel Zlatý Lev in Liberec. After Libenský's death in 2002, Brychtová left glass, and her last works included windows for the chapel of Špilberk Castle in Brno and two sculptures. "It doesn't work without Stanislav; I was used to working in pairs. Without him, it's not the same," the artist said to ČTK on her 90th birthday.