René Roubíček (23 January 1922 – 29 April 2018) was a Czech glass artist, designer, painter, musician and teacher. He was one of the leading figures of 20th century world art glass.Masakazu Yamamoto, Atsushi Takeda, in: René Roubíček: Liberated Glass, Koganezaki, 2000, p. 6Šetlík J, 2013, p. 6 As a teacher at the Vocational Glass School in Kamenický Šenov, an artist at the Vocational Glass School in Železný Brod and the head artist of the Borské sklo company, he was at the birth of Czech studio glass.
In the late 1960s he was an external professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. From 1969 he was a freelance artist and worked with Crystalex, Moser, Lasvit, Preciosa and a number of glassworks. Until the age of 96, he created free sculptures in blown and hand-formed solid, fused and plate glass.
Life 1922–1945 René Roubíček was born on 23 January 1922 in the family of a professional violinist, music teacher and amateur painter Antonín Roubíček. He had an older brother, Antonín, who was also musically gifted and later worked as a laboratory technician in the medical profession and photographer. His mother came from a carpenter's family and took care of the household throughout her life. The household was shared with the Roubíček family by his uncle Jan Tříska, who studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts under Otakar Španiel.Volf P, 2015, p. 53
René Roubíček had a visual memory and an ear for music. Together with his brother, he learned to play the piano and later mastered the clarinet, saxophone, guitar, harmonica, bagpipes and electric piano.Volf P, 2015, pp. 35-36
He attended the reform primary school where Miloslav DismanMiloslav Disman was a radio director and dramatist since 1935, founder and choirmaster of the Radio Children's Ensemble and director of children's theatre during the war taught, and later studied at the Vyšehrad Real Gymnasium, where Jindřich Severa was in charge of art education. He drew since the second grade of primary school. At the age of ten, he exhibited and sold several of his drawings and was even offered a job as a graphic designer in a Prague company, where they had no idea that he was a young boy.Petr Volf, 2015, p. 56 At the age of 14, he exhibited his copy of Václav Brožík's painting Celebration at Rubens with 52 figures, painted after a reproduction, at a show of amateur painters.Václav Brožík: Celebration at Rubens Several newspaper articles have been published about his talent. He was also noticed by the then rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague Max Švabinský who invited his parents and offered René to study at the Academy after finishing school.René Roubíček, in: Petr Volf, 2015, p. 54
Universities were closed during the war. Therefore, on the recommendation of Jindřich Severa,Jana Machalická: (R. Roubíček) - Glass does everything for me, Lidovky 11.10.2007 he began his studies at the Art and Crafts School (UMPRUM), which was then serving as the main art school. He was admitted to the studio of monumental painting and glass led by prof. Jaroslav Václav Holeček, who came to the Art and Crafts School after the occupation of the Sudetenland from the School of Glass in Nový Bor. In Holeček's studio, Věra Lišková, Stanislav Libenský, Josef Hospodka, Felix Průša, or Miluše Kytková were his classmates. During his studies, Roubíček dealt mainly with engraved, cut, etched and sandblasted glass. He finished his studies in 1944 and in 1945 became a member of the Revolutionary Guard and of the Union of Czech Youth.René Roubíček -Less Known Traits of the Artist 2022, p. 57
1945–1958 After the war, together with Stanislav Libenský and Josef Michal Hospodka, he went to northern Bohemia to substitute the displaced German glassmakers in the glass schools in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov and to maintain teaching. Roubíček's pupils in Kamenický Šenov came from the same generation (Vladimír Kopecký, Vladimír Jelínek, etc.) and felt as a family.René Roubíček, in: Petr Volf, 2015, p. 87 They were inspired by the visual style represented by the Družstevní práce publishing house at the time, especially functionalism, by arch. Otto Rothmayer, Josef Sudek or Ladislav Sutnar, and very quickly adopted a modern view of glass. René Roubíček headed the department of engraved and cut glass, but he was the first to deal with the artistic qualities of hot hand-formed glass.Antonín Langhamer, Sklář a keramik 5-6, 2018, pp. 135 He was an inspiring teacher and a capable organizer, and therefore, less than a year after the resumption of teaching, students were able to present their results at an exhibition on the 90th anniversary of the school.Antonín Langhamer. 51 Subsequently, they transferred the exhibition to the Družstevní práce shop in Prague and founded the Alumni Production Cooperative, but after the communist takeover in 1948 they were forced to enlist in the army and later it was no longer possible to restore the cooperative.Sylva Petrová, 2001, p. 35 Small-scale production was forcibly suppressed at that time in favour of large national enterprises and heavy industry.René Roubíček, The Adventure of Glass, in: P. Volf, Vzrušení, 2006, s. 155
In 1949–1950, René Roubíček completed his studies at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague in the glass studio of Prof. Josef Kaplický with a final thesis and a state examination. Until 1952 he continued as a teacher and artist of the Design centre of cut glass at the Glass School in Kamenický Šenov. The school was closed down in 1952 by decision of the communist authorities.René Roubíček - artistic visionary, in: René Roubíček, 2022, p. 1, 60 René Roubíček has moved to "Umělecké sklo" (Art Glass) national enterprise in Nový Bor, where he was the chief artist until 1965 and designed applied and decorative glassware for mass production. The Nový Bor glassworks had the longest glassmaking tradition and the widest range of glassmaking techniques and technologies, and a background of experienced professionals. René Roubíček, together with master glassmaker Josef Rozinek, created his first original works of blown and hand-shaped glass there and raised glass art to the level of other artistic disciplines.Antonín Langhamer, 1999, p. 247 He is the author of the statement "Glass is the art of today".
Karel Jindra, the former owner of the glassworks in Prácheň, who later became the director, or the theoretician Karel Hetteš, who was dismissed from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, also worked in the "Umělecké sklo (Art Glass)". The latter was officially employed as a worker in the courtyard squad, but in reality he organized exhibitions and important commissions. The glass studios designed for mass production, but apart from that, unique works were created here, such as state gifts, trophies for athletes, stained glass windows or custom-made prosthetic eyes. In 1953 another merger took place and Umělecké sklo was incorporated into the company Borské sklo together with the glassworks in Harrachov and Nový Bor.René Roubíček -Less Known Traits of the Artist 2022, p. 60 During the preparation of the World Exhibition Expo 58, glass artists were for the first time given the opportunity of completely free creation.René Roubíček, The Adventure of Glass, in: P. Volf, Vzrušení, 2006, s. 156
1958–1970 René Roubíček also worked at the Design centre of the glass school in Železný BrodŠetlík J, 2013, p. 7 and collaborated externally with the Central Art Centre for the Glass and Fine Ceramics Industry and later with the Institute of Housing and Clothing Culture (ÚBOK) in Prague.cz/2012/roubicek-en IGS: René Roubíček In 1958 he was a founding member of the creative group Bilance, whose theoretician was Karel Hetteš.org/group/562 Creative group of applied art Bilance Since 1961 he was a member of Umělecká beseda.Umělecká beseda: Roubíček René - art glassmaker
In 1966, he left his position at Borské sklo when the company was unable to ensure the production of modern designs created in the studios. In 1966–1968, at the invitation of the rector Jiří Kotalík, who was presenting modern Czech art abroad as a curator, he became an external lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but did not have time to establish a glass studio.Milan Hlaveš, 2016, p. 64 After the Soviet occupation in 1968 and the return of the rigid communist regime, he resigned from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and decided to become a freelance artist in 1969. In the 1970s he was placed on the unofficial list of politically undesirable artistsAntonín Langhamer: Jubilant René Roubíček, Sklář a keramik 1-2, 2017, pp. 37–40 and lost the possibility to exhibit independently in Czechoslovakia.
1970–2018 In the 1970s he collaborated with the Beránek glassworks (ÚLUV since 1952) in Škrdlovice,cz/cs/starozitnictvi/rene-roubicek-1922-2018-and-sklarna-beranek-later-sklarna-ustredi-art-remesel-skrdlovice René Roubíček and the Beránek glassworks, later ÚLUV Škrdlovice with glassmaker Josef Rozinek and the Crystalex glassworks in Nový Bor (formerly Borské sklo), then with Petr Novotný (Crystalex, Ajeto in Lindava), Moser in Karlovy VaryMoser: René RoubíčekThe Power of Fragility, Euro.cz, 29 September 2020 and with the Swiss glassworks Glasi Hergiswil. Exports abroad were mediated during normalization by the enterprise Artcentrum, established to obtain foreign currency for the state. In later years, he created glass in collaboration with Jiří Pačinek (PAČINEK GLASS in Kunratice u Cvikova)Pačinek Glass: about and metal sculptures in collaboration with Ivo Šimánek.
Since 1982 René Roubíček has been one of the main organizers of the International Glass Symposia (IGS) in Nový Bor. In 2015, René Roubíček and Miluše Roubíčková were the first to be elected into the IGS Glass Hall of Fame.In Nový Bor, they launched the 12th IGS Glass Symposium. International Glass Symposium. The organisers also opened the Glass Hall of Fame for the first time, ČRo Liberec, 2.10.2015 In addition to IGS Nový Bor, where he has participated eleven times since 1982, René Roubíček has participated in the International Symposium of Engraved Glass in Kamenický Šenov and glass symposia in Frauenau (1982), Lucerne (1983, 1984), Immenhausen (1985) and Glavunion in Teplice (1995). In 1994 he lectured at the Pilchuck Glass Summer School in Seattle (USA), in 1998 he made a lecture tour of Japan, and in 2006 he participated in the Visiting Artist Program at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington.Šetlík J, 2013, p. 17 He has had more than 50 solo exhibitions on virtually every continent.Jiří Bohdálek, Brno 2015
While studying at the School of Arts and Crafts, René Roubíček met Miluše Kytková, who originally wanted to study at the Faculty of Arts (closed during the war) and married her in 1948. Miluše Roubíčková was also an important glass artist. In 1966, René Roubíček became a guardian of the designer Bořek Šípek,Bořek Šípek: A life of architecture and design who was orphaned at the age of 16. Šípek lived with his sister until 1968René Roubíček, who was one of the fathers of modern glass art, died, CT 24, 4 May 2018 and emigrated to Germany after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
René Roubíček lived and worked alternately in Kamenický Šenov and Prague. In Kamenický Šenov, the Roubíček couple bought a house with a garden where they installed their works. In 1995, René Roubíček had a glass gallery built here according to his own design. A company that included teachers and theoreticians of glass art as well as glass artists, painters and sculptors used to meet at their house.René Roubíček -Less Known Traits of the Artist 2022, p. 6
Roubíček died on 29 April 2018 in Prague, at the age of 96.
Awards 1958 Grand Prix, Expo 58, Brussels 1967 Czechoslovak State Prize 1969 Bayerischer Staatspreis – Goldenmedaille, Internationale Handwerksmesse, Munich 1970 Silvermedaille, Internationale Handwerksmesse, Exempla '70, Munich