STORAGE! Selected glass objects

“What else have you got?”, or “What are you hiding from us?” are the comments sometimes heard about the internationally famous collection of the European Museum of Modern Glass.

It is true that nearly two-thirds of the collection are not on permanent display and consequently not viewable by visitors. The main reason for this is the lack of exhibition space in the museum.

This is an opportunity to focus, at least temporarily, on the objects in storage. Some eighty objects have been selected for this exhibition, some of which have never been shown in public since their acquisition, or never exhibited at all. A cross-section of works from the 1960s to 2018 will be on display.

Made using widely differing techniques, the works were acquired throughout almost the entire period of the collection’s creation. One particular focus is on objects from the 1970s and 80s. It was during these two decades that the Coburg collection also grew the fastest.

Significant acquisitions include those from the exhibition of the first, landmark Coburg Glass Prize for Contemporary Glass, an international exhibition which caused a sensation in 1977 and put Coburg on the international glass map. At the same time, the works provide a retrospective of the early period of the international studio glass movement.

At first, blown works predominate, characterised by a pronounced colourfulness. Clearly perceptible in the early period of the international studio glass movement is the joy in the new artistic possibilities offered by a smaller, often portable kiln, and working with a blowpipe. Later would come cast sculptures, objects engraved by coldworking, and objects made from molten pâte de verre, as well as vessels made with a table-top torch by a method known as lampworking.