Arnolds Vilbergs 90!

Arnolds Vilbergs( 02.01.1934 – 28.12.2019), founder of the glass design industry of the Latvian Academy of Arts, former professor of the Latvian Academy of Arts and head of the Glass Art Department has made a significant contribution to the culture of Latvia.

Since the sixties of the last century, the name of Arnolds Vilbergs has been significant in the history of Latvian design. With an innovative content and, in particular, technical solution for their time, they form the gold fund of our land design.  The range of lost heritage includes bright lighting and decorative objects created by the artist in restaurants, cafes and canteens popular in the former society both in Latvia and elsewhere in the then USSR. Design pearls created for cultural institutions, holiday homes, hotels, shops. Arnolds Vilbergs has also been actively involved in the development of industrial design of household things, numerous design proposals developed and implemented by the artist in the production of glassware in the then still flourishing Latvian glass factories – Livāni and Riga. Having received a good education in studies in Latvia and the Czech Republic, Arnolds Vilbergs proposed the creation of a glass design department in the Latvian Art Academy in 1963, considering himself a teacher of the new generation of glass artists. In parallel with the large public and industrial design projects, high-quality works of art made in various techniques were created, a large part of which were shown at annual art exhibitions and later ended up in the collections of Latvian museums. A. Vilbergs has generously donated his works to museum collections, creating a base for preserving and researching evidence of Latvian glass design history.

In the last few decades, the artist’s special interests were philosophical themes, the knowledge of the universe and the recognition of the treasures of the people’s spirit, their representation on glass plates, virtuoso diamond cuts, frosting, paintings and other processing techniques, demonstrating the breadth and depth of his artistic thought.

 This exhibition presents the artist’s gifts to Menzendorff House.