The sculptor and visual artist Václav Cigler has died at the age of 96

Prague – On Thursday, sculptor, visual artist, and educator Václav Cigler passed away at the age of 96. His son Jakub Cigler informed the Czech News Agency (ČTK) about his death. Václav Cigler was one of the most prominent figures in Czech glass art. He was the founder of the conceptual perception of glass as a work of art and made his mark in the history of world visual art by being the first to work with optical glass. People can encounter his work in various places in public spaces, including the Prague metro.

Cigler was born on April 21, 1929, in Vsetín, and after high school, he studied at the Glass Industry School in Nový Bor and the Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design in Prague under Josef Kaplický. In the mid-1960s, he founded a studio named the Department of Glass in Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, which he led. His work focused on sculptural objects made of cut optical glass, designs and realizations of light structures and jewelry, drawings, landscape projects, and compositions for architecture, and throughout his long career, he influenced the character of Czech and Slovak artistic glass across several recent generations.

"Glass is a magical material and, in a certain sense, spiritual. The optical properties of glass are for me artistic and aesthetic means by which I can present to the viewer a world enriched by new shapes, light, and color forms," Cigler said, who was recognized for his work both at home and abroad.

In March 2018, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Czech Design, and a year later, he received the State Award from the Minister of Culture for his lifetime artistic work and pedagogical activity.

Cigler's works are represented in many Czech and international galleries. His designs have also led to the interiors of the Prague metro stations, lighting systems, and fixtures in the Slovak National Theater in Bratislava and in the House of Culture in Banská Bystrica, and he contributed to the current appearance of the Sovovy Mlýny in Prague. Among his realizations is also a column called Trikolora, which was unveiled in Litomyšl to mark the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia.