An exhibition covering the whole history of Russian glass art has just opened at the “Life of Glass” gallery in Moscow. The event coincides with the publication of a book called “International Glass Art: Main tendencies and leading maste

A triptych “The glass-blowers”, dated 1961, brings together the sculptured form and etching. 20 years later and Soviet masters widened the variety of their works to include glass pictures, bas-reliefs and sculptures. New techniques came into use: the glass was glued and engraved.
 
At the end of the 80s, Russian artists started working with optical glass. They used the methods of Czech masters. This branch of glass art is represented by the works of Marina Lisytsina, which have an abstract plot and straight lines. Artist Fidel Ibraghimov connects the classical silhouettes with new methods of glass processing. Aleksey Krivolapov experiments with the density of glass, which has resulted in both classical bas-reliefs and a crystal carriage.
 
In fact, experiment is the main thing in the modern glass art – recent trends include mirrors and metal elements, while the followers of the classical trend develop new techniques for coloured glass.