proj. Zbigniew HORBOWY (1935-2019), Decorative jug

sodium glass, colored in the mass, layered; height 40 cm
Artistic Glassworks "Barbara" in Polanica Zdroj; 1975 - 1990.

Zbigniew HORBOWY (1935-2019)
Born in Łanczyn, he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw under the direction of Professor Stanislaw Dawski in 1959. While still pursuing his degree, he was employed at the "Sudety" Economic Glassworks in Szczytna as a designer. Two years later, in 1961, the Silesian Museum in Wroclaw (today's National Museum) hosted the first individual exhibition of glass, where it was Zbigniew Horbowy who presented almost 200 objects. His early projects, both of a unique and utilitarian nature, were characterized by economy of form and color.
In the mid-1960s, Horbowy presented glass of the "antico" type. Decorated with an innovative technique, heavily foamed with suspended air bubbles embedded in the mass, with intense colors, they were a huge success. They carried the characteristics of unique glass. Each piece was different because of the density, size or distribution of the bubbles, and bottles, vases or platters could be composed into striking sets.
On the initiative of Zbigniew Horbowy in 1974 in Polanica-Zdrój, the Artistic Glass Plant "Barbara" is launched, which is a unit of the "Sudety" glassworks (the production of colored glass was transferred there from Szczytna). In "Artystka", as it was commonly called, short series of glass of a more artistic nature were to be produced.
In 1978 Zbigniew Horbowy began a 15-year collaboration with ZZG INCO in Wroclaw. He organized a small glassworks there, which was closer to the idea of "glass studios" popular in Western Europe and the USA, than a plant producing on an industrial scale. At INCO, short series of decorative glass in only one smoky color, called "silver smoke," are made, according to the designer's idea.
Zbigniew Horbowy's greatest passion was industrial design for mass production, but he also created works of a unique nature. Rarely were these forms typically sculptural, mostly they had a utilitarian character (vases "Kama", "Mech", sets "Manhattan" or "Ufo"), and some of them later went into production in a simplified form.
Simultaneously with his career as a designer, Zbigniew Horbowy's academic career developed. In 1963, he was hired at his alma mater, where in subsequent years he served three terms as dean of the Department of Ceramics and Glass, as well as head of the Department of Glass. In 1989 he received the title of professor, and the crowning achievement of his academic work was the position of rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, which he assumed for two terms in 1999. (BWA Walbrzych)