Leibovitz-Jiraskova Klara
Klara Leibovitz-Jiraskova (°1966) was trained in printmaking at the Prague School of Applied Arts, together with her father, the renowned graphic artist Jiri Jirasek. After her marriage to Edward Leibovitz she comes to Antwerp and Edward teaches her the tricks of the trade of glass. She takes part in the summer workshops in Sars-Poteries in Northern France and in Frauenau in Bavaria. In fact, Klara is a graphic artist. Drawing is second nature to her. Her first works in glass are timid and strongly determined by the presence of an impressive artist such as Edward Leibovitz. However, this changed very quickly and she found her own style, in which she often uses the glass to achieve special effects in her drawings, such as the placement of different engraved discs one after the other, creating a complex composition with a three-dimensional appearance. Her expression is fresh and casual and focuses on the world in her immediate vicinity. The big topics of today are no inspiration to her: no wars or pollution scandals, no "mother why we live". Everyday events, happiness in the small things, with a positive outlook on life. You can read her compositions almost like a cartoon, with an astonishing presence of the human child and fairy-tale animals in the midst of the moving things: a bicycle, a wheel, an airplane. Her poetry is light-hearted but sincere, its elaboration testifies to an innate good taste. She finds the golden mean between tradition, which she has learned through rigorous training, and the thirst for innovation that is imparted to every artist. The only way to achieve the new credibly consists in allowing herself to be guided by her own nature: if the artist has sufficient personality and really has something to say, an original work of art is automatically born. In addition to this engraving, related to her etchings on paper, Klara also practices round sculpture. An acrobat in white glass hangs stretched in various ways on a frame in front of a canvas or above a base. Playfulness, or does this indicate man, the plaything of forces against which he has no recourse? Is he having fun or is he undergoing humiliating treatment? This is where doubts about the carelessness in Klara Leibovitz-Jiraskova's existence creep in. Those who have the happiness worry about its survival, as being in love always comes with pain, and sometimes is dismissed as a disease. Behind a screen of cheerfulness there is so often tension and melancholy. (JW) https://okv.be/nl/OKV-artikel/arts-and-crafts-vandaag-vlaanderen