EXHIBITION. The emergence of contemporary glass. Remembering VICOINTER ’83

A project of the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts “González Martí” in collaboration with the National Glass Center Foundation Museum, La Granja.
The impact of the exhibition “VIdrio COntemporáneo INTERnacional” (“VICOINTER ’83”), held at the Valencia Fair in 1983, represents a before and after in the history of glass art in our country. Although since the beginning of the 20th century, some creators had made room for glass in the language of plastic expression of their artistic universe, as was the case with Gaudí or Jujol, and others, later on, also took this material into account as a means of plastic expression (Pablo Picasso, Leandre Cristòfol, Jorge Oteiza or Antoni Tàpies), the truth is that glass work had been linked, in an unfailing way, to handicraft production and pieces of decorative arts, up to that moment.

When Joaquín Torres Esteban (Santa María de Nieva, Segovia, 1919-Madrid, 1988) organized the exhibition “VICOINTER ’83” and presented the works of 127 glassmakers, something really unusual took place in Spain. The success of this call, in which works from the stained glass tradition of 21 countries were presented, further encouraged Torres to decisively promote the creation of a museum dedicated to the New Glass Movement in the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts “González Martí ” From Valencia.

«The emergence of contemporary glass. Remembering “VICOINTER ’83” ”, he will make known, in two main areas, this magnificent legacy and the repercussion that this artistic trend has had in our country.