It is great that Lubomir Ferko took the opportunity to make a book on Slovakian glass to show how a rather small country can be great!
Explaining the situation on the glass factories, the earlier books released but not focusing on the contemporary art of glass as they were written by historians, nor did write on the yearly glass symposiums organized there since 1990.
Frans Jeursen opens this book with a splendid text on Czechoslovakian history, the production of glass in Slovakia, the development from craft to art towards Modern Slovak glass art. Then he reports on the different symposiums with all the artists involved, their subjects and mediums and their contacts with glass artists from other countries.
In an interview with Jeursen he responded to the statement: We are holding in our hands this beautiful book. You must be proud of it? by saying: ”I am, but chiefly of all the work that has been put into it by others such as Lubomir Ferko and his friends and associates. All the meticulous research in archives, the true detective work of searching photo’s, information, writing letters making phone calls and so forth, and that for several years, to collect and fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Truly archaeology of the recent past as very little material was readily available and much had already been destroyed. We can only admire their tenacity and perseverance. In truth, I want to make it quite clear that this is not my book, but theirs”.
In the Concluding Statement is the plea to artists to capture their own identity as Jeursen explains how older artists worked alone in their studios and turned their back to the world and listened to their inner voices and the younger generation is connecting with the world via the social media. Then the book follows with photos and lists of artists involved in the different symposiums and their cv's.
So a book as a monument we all need to have in order to understand the nature of Slovakian glass art and the artists, their development and future.
Angela van der Burght
