Jan Stohanzl
Jan Štohanzl Glass artist was born in 1948, in Přibyslav, Czech Republic. When he was 18 he completed one year of practical training in the Dobronín Glassworks attached to the Sklárny Bohemia in Poděbrady. In the late sixties, Jan went on to study at the Specialized School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod, in the Department of Cut Glass.
Jan, in 1971, trained to be a workshop instructor. He then took charge of the studio of the Centre for Artistic Crafts in Prague, which he ran for fifteen years. It was here that he was able to seek his own artistic orientation. In 1977, he was awarded ‘Master of Artistic Crafts’ and he joined the Association of Czech Fine Artists. This enabled him to become a freelance glass artist.
In the middle of the 1980s Jan Štohanzl Glass studio opened with Jaromir Rybák, a former classmate from the glass school in Železný Brod. It was through Rybák, that Jan learnt the mould-melted glass technique. Adopted from Rybák, via agreement, Stohanzl started to employ glassmaking processes of fusing coloured inclusions into glass. Using this technology, Jan introduced his own innovations to his mastery. This allows Jan to create lead crystal pieces that form his visions more effectively. How he creates the colours and forms inside his pieces is a well-guarded secret.
In 1991, Jan held his first individual exhibition in the Gallery Crystal in The Hague. A number of exhibitions across the world have followed.
In later years, Jan moved from sculptures to concentrate on more definite shapes and forms. Cubes, Blocks, cylinders, discs, pyramids and cones.
Jan believes that his glass sculptures speak for themselves and that the mastery of each piece is clearly evident within itself.
Jan Štohanzl was born on November 6, 1948, in Přibyslav. Following one year of practical training in the Dobronín Glassworks attached to the Sklárny Bohemia in Poděbrady (1966–67), he studied at the Specialized School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod, in the Department of Cut Glass (1967–71). For two years he prepared for the career of workshop instructor of the Department of Cut Glass (1971–73). But for political reasons, he could not take this position. Subsequently, he was employed in the Glass-cutting Studio of the Centre for Artistic Crafts in Prague (1973–89); since 1981 the studio led. He was awarded the title “Master of Artistic Crafts” in cut glass (1977) and was admitted to the Union of Czech Fine Artists (1988). He has been a freelance glass artist since 1989.
Exhibitions at Knupp gallery
2020 "Glass Mates" - together with glassmaker Jaromír Rybák