Text: Martina Hošková and M. Zisso; Photo: archive
Czech glass is a masterpiece, appreciated all around the world for hundreds of years. What happens in this field when an original artistic vision marries the technical reality? Let us appreciate together the 30-year-long success story of Jitka and Richard Kanta, artists and owners of Skloart – a unique Czech manufacturer of stained glass from the Karlovy Vary region.
“Stained glass is a special kind of glass art. You can think of it as a game of small colorful glass pieces that are assembled into a variety of designs, reminiscent of a popular free-time activity – the puzzle,”say Jitka and Richard Kanta, artists and owners of the Skloart company.
This old artisanship of fragile beauty has been a predominantly male affair since the very beginning. Although the colorful mosaic window fillings have appeared since antiquity, the largest development of classic stained glass was in relation to the construction of medieval cathedrals, churches, and monasteries. In the 19th century, smaller pieces’ techniques were developed that led to the production of design items and jewelry. That presented an opportunity for women, considering their finesse and imagination. In the 1960s, women finally fought their way into this art and crafts industry.
At the top, among the many contemporary designers involved in this unique glass industry in the Czech Republic, is also a woman – Jitka Kantová (born Folprechtová). Born in Most, North Bohemia, her mother
was a painter from a deeply religious German family, and her painter friends and professors were really inspiring for young Jitka. In 1993, she first encountered stained glass – it was a huge impulse that led her to leave her current artwork, and become fully devoted to this field of art.
After marrying Richard Kanta, they started working together. Their first major work was a restoration of the stained glass in the Art Nouveau Elementary School in Louny. Richard is very technical, and has always, from the beginning, turned his wife’s artistic vision into technical reality.
Their family business is located in the historical town of Lubenec, on the way from Prague to Karlovy
Vary. One of the latest masterpieces made in Lubenec was an excellent stained-glass work for the 700th anniversary of the birth of Charles IV. Visitors of the Kantas’ workshop can learn about the entire creation process. “If you don’t work on new ideas every day, and don’t put your soul into your craft, you won’t last long,” says Jitka Kantová. Besides window ornaments, the Kantas create other original items as well. Their works can be found all around the world, and in galleries too, where you can admire their lamps, jewellery, vases, candlesticks, paintings, tiny hanging stained-glass Christmas decorations, and other artistic pieces.
Jitka has a vision for the future:
“We would mainly like to finish our ongoing projects in Lubenec, where we would create a place for people of goodwill to meet. This would be a place that will inspire the younger generation towards a new interesting direction, but also a place to rest and relax. Even today, there is a museum of stained glass, an unusual and beautiful nature trail, and a renovated lookout tower in our town. We would like to bring life back to this place, and make it a center of art, ideas, meetings, and creative thinking.”
Source: the book by Ivan Černý and Jitka and Richard Kantovi, 30 let s vitráží
