Monumental Glass Sculpture on View for the First Time This Century
Stanislav Libenský (Czech, 1921-2002), and Jaroslava Brychtová (Czech, 1924-2020). Blue Concretion, 1966. Glass and metal. 971/2 × 80 x 36 1/4 in. Cafesjian Art Trust, 2025.160.8.
Glass history is being made at the CAT. Currently on view is one of the most important works in the museum’s collection: Blue Concretion by Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. This sculpture was made in 1966 but has only been on public view three times until now, where it holds a place of pride in our current exhibition Abstraction & Ourselves, on view until July 31, 2026.
Libenský and Brychtová were masters of large-scale glass casting. They created sculpture together as a duo for almost fifty years, beginning in 1956 and concluding only with Libenský’s death in 2002. They lived and worked in what is now the Czech Republic. The duo made Blue Concretion for the Czechoslovakian pavilion at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal, Canada. The sculpture consists of 25 separate cast glass components held together on a metal frame. Two gray-blue planes, each made up of 12 panels, stand parallel to each other, almost touching. The smooth side of the panels faces outward, while the dynamic, sculptural side of the panels faces inward, toward each other. A single cylindrical form of clear glass passes through both planes, joining them together in this single spot. On its debut in Montreal, the sculpture garnered much attention, in particular from other glass artists from around the world. Among its admirers was Harvey Littleton, who had just kicked off the studio glass movement in the US.
Blue Concretion plays with concepts important to Libenský and Brychtová: color, light, and form. The gray-blue panels are all cast using the same, single color of glass. However, the panels appear to have graduations of different colors. This is because the variable thickness of the glass panels allows more or less light to travel through it, altering its ability to absorb and emit light. Varying amounts of white light mixing with the blue creates many different tints of the color. When viewed head-on, the two layers of the sculpture’s panels create an even more complex interaction of shape and light. This sculpture invites viewers to look from the sides as well, revealing an interaction of the dynamic, sculptural sides of the panels that face toward each other. The clear cylinder, seemingly full of light, is a bridge that connects both panels, carrying light through one plane to the other.
Once Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, selected this work for inclusion in Abstraction & Ourselves, the museum’s Collections team had to figure out how to display it. Blue Concretion is stored disassembled, and any assembly instructions that may have existed had been lost over the years.
Detail from the side of Blue Concretion
This sculpture was last put together in 1994, when it was displayed at the Corning Museum of Glass for the exhibition Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová: A 40-Year Collaboration in Glass. Fortunately, our colleagues at the Rakow Research Library at the Corning Museum of Glass were able to dig up something that could help: raw video footage of Libenský and Brychtová’s studio, taken by a documentary filmmaker in preparation for the 1994 exhibition. Captured among the hours of footage were studio assistants removing Blue Concretion from crates and assembling it.
Terry Moyemont, producer. The work and lives of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. Libenský 1:XV. Video recording. Collection of the Rakow Research Library, Corning, New York. Link to library catalog.
Following the example of the 1994 video, the CAT’s Collections team first put the sculpture together in August 2025. This practice run proved successful, and the sculpture was professionally photographed (see the photograph at the top of this post). The team put up the sculpture again for Abstraction & Ourselves, which opened on March 6, 2026. Below is a film of the sculpture being assembled, accompanied by insights from the staff who completed this monumental task.
Blue Concretion will be on view at the CAT through July 31, 2026. Come see it for yourself, and admire this stunning piece of glass history!
Abstraction and Ourselves is organized by Jill Ahlberg Yohe, the CAT’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition was made possible by generous loans and support from Art Bridges. We also thank Bockley Gallery and the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
