Václav Cigler

Cigler (Vsetín, Czech Republic, 1929) underwent the best art-training in Prague. After attending the glass school in Nový Bor, he transferred to the School of Applied Art in Prague, where he studied under Josef Kaplický from 1951 to 1957.

Cigler acquired a reputation in the 1960s for geometrical objects made from cut solid optical glass. The extraordinary craftsmanship required for Cigler’s work in optical glass, which can take months to achieve, employing platinum-coated tanks and diamond tools to perfect the hardness, clarity, and formations of the glass, adds to their sense of rarity as well as to their immaculate precision.

Light plays a crucial role in Cigler’s pieces, reflecting along the edges and in the fissures of the glass. Cigler explores the interplay between interior and exterior spaces possible only with transparent glass.

Cigler's work and installations have been displayed in Europe, North America and Asia.

His work is included in numerous prominent collections, including Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Ebeltoft, Denmark; Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg in Cobug, Germany; Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France; Slovakian National Gallery in Bratislava, Slovakia; and Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England.

Cigler is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 1968 Prize for Decorative Art of the Union of Czechoslovakian Fine Artists and Honorary Prize at the 1985 Zweiter Coburger Glaspreis in Coburg, Germany.