Our exhibition “Gravur on Tour: Glassmuseum Lette” opens at 3pm on 26th April at the Glasmuseum Lette in Coesfeld, Germany, showing the work of some 40 glass artists from 10 countries. The exhibition runs till 19th October.

Gravur on Tour – the title says it all!

Because for the past 13 years, exhibitions devoted to engraved glass have been held under this title in museums and glass centres throughout Europe. They are organised at regular intervals by the Glass Engraving Network, or GEN for short. The international network’s declared aim is to showcase outstanding contemporary works in engraved glass in order to draw attention to how – despite, or because, of its long tradition – glass engraving is still very much a living, magical and inspiring art form.

The idea of founding a network for glass engravers was born in 2012 in the Bavarian glassmaking centre of Frauenau, where the artists Katharine Coleman, Wilhelm Vernim and Norbert Kalthoff met while attending summer school. They quickly got to talking about the decline of glass engraving as a discipline at European schools and universities. In antiquity as well as modern times, masterfully engraved glass was an expensive and coveted luxury item, but it seemed as though its long success story had waned toward the end of the twentieth century. To improve these bleak future prospects, the three artists instantly decided to form an organisation that would show the world how glass engraving traditions have in fact long been a part of modern artistic practice.

As an open, virtual network, GEN has ever since then been bringing together artists who want to give glass engraving a fresh impetus in the context of contemporary glass art. Through its exhibition programme, workshops and meetings, GEN promotes ongoing artistic and technical exchanges that contribute to advances in engraving, cutting and other glass finishing methods. These activities spotlight the enormous creative potential for contemporary art offered by traditional cold-working techniques.

The current exhibition at the Glasmuseum Lette demonstrates just how successful GEN’s efforts have been. It is an honour for us to host this Europe-wide exhibition project. And it’s going to be exciting to see how around 40 artists from 10 countries apply their individual formal language to exploring a wide range of artistic concepts and styles. Most of the works are no more than two years old, and many were even created especially for this exhibition. One thing is certain: glass engraving never stands still but is constantly on the move – on tour!