Manifesto
The art of glassmaking in France reached its peak at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century thanksto the creative geniuses of men such as René Lalique, Émile Gallé and the Daum brothers. After 1930, the creativity resulting from French industrial glasswords is running out of steam.
The 60's were marked by a breakthrough for the glass-making industry, driven by the Czechoslovakian school led by Stanislav Libensky-Brychtova, which replaced traditional decorative objects (content-container) with abstract and geometric shapes revealing their own message. Thus, the figurative is abandoned for the optical illusions allowed by the depth of the glass.
Conceptual takes an integral place in the art of glass, it is accompanied by major technical innovations, such as glass melted in molds (kiln-casting), giving birth to the first sculptures in architectural glass or the advances in the glass paste.
At the same time, in the United States of America born in 1962, under the leadership of Harvey Littleton, the Studio Glass Movement emerges, he promotes the artist as a craftsman designer and manufacturer of unique objects in his own studio. Many experimental centers are emerging around the world. The Czechoslovakian school will contribute greatly to the Studio Glass Movement.
Verretuoses is a laboratory of ideas in the vein of independent studios.
The mission of Verretuoses is translated into two quests:
A technical quest
The constant search for technical advances is, in our opinion, indispensable and indissociable in the achievement of our aesthetic quest. For us, glass art is a shaper of worlds, gathering innumerable dimensions materialized by different glassmaking techniques. Learning each technique is long and difficult, it requires perseverance. We believe that our aesthetic quest can only be satisfied by finding solutions to the technical problems encountered, and by combining the different glassmaking techniques. Since these techniques are so vast that it is impossible to explore them all, we decide to explore the techniques of shaping glass in an oven (fusing, slumping, kiln-casting and glass paste) since it is these that awaken today our creativity.
An aesthetic quest
Dare to create, to dare freedom, it is the interweaving of techniques that allows us to achieve this aesthetic quest, namely the development of glass in all its fantastic dimension. This result can be achieved through complex optical effects combining perspective and geometry. Our creations sometimes absorb the light, sometimes reflect it. No other material than glass allows this richness of expression, this subtle play of shadow and light that allows both mystery and transparency. Verretuoses is an invitation to dare freedom through creation.