Challenges and prospects for the world studio glass development: based on the results of the International Scientific and Practical Conference-presentation “World Studio Glass. Tradition and Experiment”

Abstract

The international studio glass movement, which emerged in the 1960s and became an important phenomenon in the recent history of decorative arts, today faces new challenges of today. The movement of studio glass has led to the emergence of a new concept in contemporary art - fine glass, which in recent decades has formed new artistic values. Despite the global nature of the spread of the studio movement, the common vector of the development of art glass in the direction of liberation from industrial dependence poses new requirements and challenges to glass artists, designers, national schools. The desire for imagery and ideology prevails in modern glass. National schools have a clear identity and are distinguished by their own individuality. The International Scientific and Practical Conference-presentation of the creativity of world-famous glass artists “World Studio Glass. Tradition and Experiment” was held within the frames of the XI International Blown Glass Symposium in Lviv. Every three years the artists meet in Lviv, demonstrate their skills on the workshop basis of the only Glass Art Department in Ukraine and tell the public about their experience. Creative meetings took place in the Gallery of Lviv National Academy of Art during the period from October 7 to October 10, 2019. The project was implemented with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund. In the reports, delivered during four days of the Conference, the current issues of the contemporary glass art development and professional education, the formation of creative workshops and artistic groups, the roles of festivals, symposiums in the glass art development, the use of new techniques and technologies in postindustrial eraб, were discussed. Generally, the speakers analysed a wide range of problems and phenomena of the studio glass, shared their own observations and considerable researches of individual technological processes. The participants in the Conference touched in their reports on the important issues of culture dialogue, the development of contemporary studio movement, the impact of the latest technologies on traditional methods of processing. Much attention was paid to the discussion of the main tendencies of glass art development. The speakers concentrated on acute challenges of modernity, which glass artists are faced with, and which are, at the same time, universal for all representatives of contemporary decorative art. The range of works is very wide: from small handicrafts to landscape glass, sculptures, performance, installations and so on. The contemporary glass is utilitarian, duplicated works and original author’s projects. This is a constant balancing between the tradition and new experiments, between the genres and kinds of art.