MKDL Meets: František Jungvirt
How did you begin this creative journey?
I come from Vimperk, a small town in South Bohemia, where there used to be a small glass factory.
Unfortunately, it no longer exists but I loved going there as a child. My grandfather, who was a glass grinder, took me here. It was here that I was introduced to glass-making for the first time, and it was also where I first tried it for myself.
I’ve had a relationship with visual arts since I was young, but I decided to focus on glass at school. I started studying glass at secondary school in Třebon, specialising in glass painting.
You have described your work as bringing ‘new impulses’ to classic Czech glassmaking. How does this tradition affect your work, and how have you managed to find the balance between old and new?
I consider it very important to cross the boundaries, and this is my goal in everything I create. I am constantly researching ideas and techniques, trying to come up with new combinations and methods. I want to create new paths. I am looking for new colours, unusual possibilities in glass, giving things different functions.
I am experimenting a lot. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes not so much.
In one of my most recent works, I am trying to break down the stereotypes that a vase must fulfil the function of a hollow container for cut flowers and only work in daylight. Because of this, my vases are visual objects- artistic and sculptural pieces. It can work with or without a flower. I work with novel combinations of materials, I try to depict things in glass hyper-realistically using painting or hot glass moulding. Those made of uranium glass also shine at night
“I try to make objects that are not cold and static.
My glass objects are full of colour, movement and life.”
You’ve received a huge number of awards throughout your career, including most recently Forbes 30 under 30 Czech Republic 2024.
Did you ever anticipate having this success when you started, and how has this recognition affected you and your work?
“I really enjoy my work. I am not a collector of design awards.”
Of course, I'm always happy when someone chooses to highlight my work.
I appreciate it all the more that this year I could be among 30 people under 30 who excel in their field and have success not only artistically, but also in their businesses.
I'm always trying to improve and be a better artist, craftsman and person too.
What achievement are you most proud of?
I am most proud of being able to do work that I enjoy. Its also been very important to me that I have been able to maintain the tradition of Czech glass-making.
In terms of particular pieces, I am usually most proud of the latest project that I’ve completed, and always looking towards the next.
Discovering a new technique, finishing a product or creating a unique concept brings me happiness and provides the motivation that moves me forward in my work.
How does working for well-known brands such as Preciosa differ from working with private clients?
Large companies are often looking for products that will be imaginative but at the same time commercially successful.
So a way must be found where the product will be timeless, of excellent quality, but at the same time easy and quick to manufacture. It has to attract a large number of customers.
For private clients, we usually focus on the development of exclusive one-piece items or small series of objects, vases.
For example, it can be an object that will serve a single person or be its own object.
“You can let your imagination run wild and create something truly exclusive.”
Where do you draw your inspiration for your designs?
I am very interested in glass craftsmanship and tradition. With my products, I insist that they are finished not only artistically, but also in terms of craftsmanship.
I also often reach for topics that help me solve a situation at a given moment. I have religious themes or motifs connected to my family and the place I come from (I come from a place of beautiful green forests and meadows full of flowers).
All my inspiration thus moves on the plane of nature, family, spirituality, craft and old techniques, inspiration from painting and architecture.
“I come from a place of beautiful green forests and meadows full of flowers.”
What have been the biggest challenges of starting your own business?
I think one of the biggest challenges was getting the funding to start a business doing what you love.
Glass in a very demanding field not only physically but also financially. A lot of artisans and people need to be paid to make the product and the brand behind it strong.
I was lucky enough to start collaborating with brands such as Moser, Preciosa, Klimchi and designing for private clients such as Google, Sisley, DS Automobiles, House of Lobkowicz, J & T Bank, Four Seasons hotel, etc. while still at school.
Thanks to this, I have a lot of experience with the most demanding customers and, at the same time, the finances to develop my own frantisekjungvirt brand.
Today, I have my showroom and around 60 different sales points and I am trying to expand further abroad.
What excites you most about your work?
I feel inexhaustible possibilities with glass. I can refine it in its cold form, and work with it in a glass furnace, where it is in a liquid state and can be shaped in any way.
I like to move from utilitarian products like glasses, bowls, vases to art objects and conceptual installations.